Methods for providing cross-vendor support services

ABSTRACT

According to one aspect, in response to a request from a mobile application running at a mobile device of a customer, a personalized page is transmitted to the mobile application, the personalized page including a list of products retrieved from a customer profile of the customer. Each of the products is associated with one or more communications channels preferred by an associated client, which are retrieved from the client database. A live support request is received from the mobile application initiated from a selected product of the personalized page, the live support request including a selection selecting one of the preferred communications channels listed on the personalized page. A live communication session is established between the customer and a support agent using a selected communications channel for live support services to the customer concerning the selected product.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/085,401, filed Apr. 12, 2011, which is related to thefollowing co-pending U.S. patent applications: U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/085,397, filed Apr. 12, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/085,398, filed Apr. 12, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/085,399, filed Apr. 12, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/085,404, filed Apr. 12, 2011; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/085,406, filed Apr. 12, 2011. The above-identified applications arehereby incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to customersupport services. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relateto methods for providing cross-vendor support services.

BACKGROUND

Prior to the advent and prolific use of distributed network environmentssuch as the Internet, customer service sessions typically occurred overa teleconference between a customer service agent and a customer. Theseteleconferences, which incidentally are still very popular today, areinitiated by a customer placing a phone call to a customer serviceagent. The customer service agent's phone receives the call through apublic-switched telephone network (PTSN). Many call centers handle alarge volume of inquiries, usually by phone, for sales, information,customer support and other services. Typical call centers provide theability to route multiple incoming, customer-initiated calls to agentswhich provide sales, information, or support on behalf of an entityinterested in establishing or maintaining a relationship with thecustomer.

Modern call center systems selectively route incoming calls based on anumber of factors such as the number called or dialed, the originatingnumber, the queued sequence of the caller, the geographic location ofthe caller, accumulated caller history, and other relevant criteria.Once the system has evaluated the inbound caller's information, if any,the system searches for an available agent to service the call.Availability of agents may be dependent on any number of factors such asa skill level or a schedule of the agent. The number of agents withinthe contact center and available to the system may often be limited bythe physical space available for the agents to operate. Contact centershave to deal with a limited number of agents to handle a large number ofincoming customer calls.

As the Internet is getting more popular, customer service providers nowprovide for computer-based customer service interaction by way of theWorld Wide Web. Instead of initiating a customer service session byusing the phone, customers may access a website and engage in aweb-based customer service session to make inquiries (e.g., technicalsupport) and/or perform tasks (e.g., paying bills). Web-based customerservice sessions offer numerous advantages over teleconference-basedsessions. For example, the graphical user interface of web-basedcustomer service applications permit customers to view illustrations orwritten explanations and thus ameliorate the miscommunications which mayarise with oral conversations between a customer service agent and acustomer.

Further, web-based customer service sessions enable a customer todirectly target his/her needs on the website and thus reduce the timeexpended both in navigating through a series of vocal menu choicesinapplicable to the consumer's particular needs and in waiting to speakto a service agent. Significantly, web-based customer service sessionsare particularly cost-effective for the customer service provider giventhat fewer agents are required to communicate with customers. Indeed,customers are provided functionality for finding answers to theirquestions or performing tasks without any help from a live agent. Thesecustomer service sessions may be entirely computer-based or,alternatively, involve interaction with a customer service agent.

While there are advantages to performing customer service sessions overthe web or other distributed network environments, there has been a lackof efficient platforms to take full advantage of today's technologies,particularly, the mobile technologies. In order to obtain customersupport from a support center, the customer is still required to takemany steps of manual processes such as a complicated process forregistering a product. While there are many ways (e.g., email, chat,voice) to communicate between a customer and an agent, there has been alack of an efficient mechanism to provide the customer the bestavailable and cost effective communication channels to an agent.

In addition, the availability of information of a knowledgebase (KB)associated with a product of a vendor is limited to an agent whospecifically handles that product for the vendor. Often a support issueof a product may involve multiple components from multiple vendors.There has been a lack of an efficient way to share certain knowledgeacross multiple vendors without jeopardizing the safety of confidentialinformation of the vendors. Furthermore, a customer typically has toinitiate a support call to the support center and the support centerprovides support services to the customer by responding to the supportcall. There has been a lack of an efficient way to provide proactivesupport services to a customer.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

According to one aspect of the invention, a first request is received ata services application programming interface (API) of a support centerfrom a first user for support services of a first product provided by afirst client of the support center. The support center provides supportservices for multiple products provided by multiple clients. A secondrequest is received at the services API of the support center from asecond user for support services of a second product provided by asecond client of the support center. A first knowledgebase (KB)associated with the first client and a second KB associated with thesecond client are identified. A third KB that contains informationcommon to the first product and the second product is identified. Thefirst KB and the third KB are enabled to be accessible by a first agentassigned to provide support services of the first product to the firstuser without exposing the second KB to the second agent. The second KBand the third KB are enabled to be accessible by a second agent assignedto provide support services of the second product to the second userwithout exposing the first KB to the first agent. As a result,confidential information of the first KB of the first client and thesecond KB of the second client is not shared across different clients.

Other features of the present invention will be apparent from theaccompanying drawings and from the detailed description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a one-touch support servicesystem according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a support centeraccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a mobile deviceaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing customersupport services according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for registering aproduct according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 shows an example of products that have been registered by acustomer and stored in customer asset store according to one embodimentof the invention.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are screenshots illustrating graphical user interfacesof a one-touch application according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 shows transaction flows among certain components of a supportcenter for registering a product according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for registering a productwith a support center according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for registering aproduct according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an example of service API of asupport center according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a transactional diagram illustrating a processing flow of aproduct support service according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing supportservices to a customer according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing supportservices to a customer according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a system for creating apersonalized page for a customer according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingpersonalized support services according one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 17 is an example of data structure illustrating availablecommunication channels according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for determiningavailability of communication channels according to one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a support system for providingproactive services according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing proactivesupport services according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 21 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing proactivesupport services according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating a system for providingself-support services according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 23 is a state diagram illustrating a process for publishing contentfor self-support according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 24 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingself-support services according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 25 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingself-support services according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram illustrating a system for providingcross-vendor support services according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 27 is a block diagram illustrating knowledgebase architecture forcross-vendor support according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating associations of clients,programs, and articles for support services according to one embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 29 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingcross-vendor supports according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram of a data processing system, which may beused with one embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 31A-31D are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of a one-touch application according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 32A-32F are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of a one-touch application according to another embodiment ofthe invention.

FIGS. 33A-33D are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of a one-touch application according to another embodiment ofthe invention.

FIGS. 34A-34L are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of a one-touch application according to another embodiment ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments and aspects of the invention will be described withreference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings willillustrate the various embodiments. The following description anddrawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construedas limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the presentinvention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventionaldetails are not described in order to provide a concise discussion ofembodiments of the present inventions.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin conjunction with the embodiment can be included in at least oneembodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarilyall refer to the same embodiment.

According to some embodiments of the invention, a one-touch applicationis installed on a mobile device of a customer or user, where theone-touch application can serve as a central service point to a supportcenter that provides support services to a variety of products orservices provided by a variety of vendors. The vendors can be, forexample, the manufacturers, distributors, retailers, service brokers,purchasing houses, etc. of the products. Vendors may be the clients ofthe support center or entities having a business relationship with thesupport center. A user (also referred to herein as a customer) canactivate the one-touch application from the user's mobile device toreach an agent, the support center, or a KB data center via a variety ofcommunication channels or medias, such as, for example, email, chat,voice (including automated interactive voice recognition or IVR, voiceover Internet protocol or VoIP), video, Web, and/or onlinecommunity-based forum, etc.

According to one embodiment, an efficient registration mechanism isprovided to allow a user to register a product with the support centerin a simple and efficient way without having to specifically providedetailed information of the product. In one embodiment, a user canactivate the one-touch application from a mobile device to transmit amachine-readable code that uniquely identifies a product to the supportcenter, where the support center is configured to determine the productand a vendor (e.g., manufacturer or retailer) that provides the productbased on the machine-readable code. For example, according to aparticular embodiment, the user can use a scanner or camera of itsmobile device to capture an image of a serial number or a universalproduct code (UPC) of a product and use the one-touch application totransmit the image to the support center using a variety ofcommunication channels. As a result, the user does not have tospecifically provide detailed product information for registrationpurposes. Subsequently, the user can activate or launch the one-touchapplication from the user's mobile device for support services of theregistered product.

According to one embodiment, when a one-touch application is activatedor launched from a mobile device by a user, the one-touch application isconfigured to communicate with a service application programminginterface (API) of the support center. The service API invokes asecurity system to authenticate the user based on the informationtransmitted from the one-touch application without requiring the user tospecifically provide user information. For example, according to oneembodiment, the user may be authenticated based on a media accesscontrol (MAC) address or international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI)code of the mobile device associated with the user. Such information mayhave been previously provided to the support center when the userregistered with the support center by installing the one-touchapplication on the user's mobile device.

Once the user has been authenticated, according to one embodiment, theservice API transmits a list of one or more products that have beenregistered to the user. The list of the registered products may bedisplayed on a display of the mobile device, where each product isassociated with one or more communication channels that are availablefor the user to contact an agent of the support center. In oneembodiment, the availability of the communication channels is determinedbased on the user preference and the vendor preference at the point intime. Such user preference and vendor preference may be configured in auser profile and vendor profile, respectively, which may be maintainedby the support center.

In response to a selection of one or more of the available communicationchannels received at the service API, according to one embodiment, aunique case identification (ID) is instantly created to uniquelyrepresent a current instant of the support case. In addition, a touchplan is created and tracked by the unique case ID, where the touch planrepresents a blueprint or outline of the corresponding support case. Thetouch plan is forwarded to an agent assigned to the current case and acommunication session is established between the assigned agent and theuser via the selected communication channel. The interaction between theuser and the agent is logged and tracked based on the touch plan and theunique case ID, which may be stored in an interactive history database,for example, for subsequent analysis.

In some situations, according to one embodiment of the invention, thetouch plan may include information that identifies a relationshipbetween two products or services that have been purchased via a client(e.g., purchasing house). When a first product/service changes, thesupport center may determine that a second product/service may need tochange as well based on the touch plan. Accordingly, the support centerproactively notifies the user regarding the possible change of thesecond product/service and offers support services for the secondproduct/service, without requiring the user to initiate a support call.

According to one embodiment, prior to contacting an agent, a list ofsupport options may be presented to the user, including a link to apublication forum that may contain one or more solutions that the useris seeking. Such solutions may have been previously generated byextracting certain information from knowledgebase (KB) of a variety ofinformational sources, such as, for example, internal support KB,client/vendor KB, manufacturer KB, online community KB, and/or customerinteractive history KB, etc. As a result, the user may find a solutionfrom the publication forum and does not need to contact an agent of thesupport center, which in turn may lower the cost for the client.

System Overview

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a one-touch support servicesystem according to one embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG.1, system 100 includes a mobile device 101 of a user, customer, orindividual communicatively coupled to support center 103 over network102. Note that the terms of “user,” “customer,” and “individual” areinterchangeable terms throughout this application. Network 102 may be apacket switched network (e.g., local area network or LAN, metropolitanarea network or MAN, a wide area network or WAN or Internet), a circuitswitched network (e.g., public switched telephone network or PSTN), or acombination of both. Other network types such as wired or wirelessnetworks for Internet telephony, cellular networks, unlicensed mobileaccess (UMA) networks, and the like may also be implemented. Mobiledevice 101 may be any kind of mobile devices including, but is notlimited to, a laptop, mobile phone, tablet, media player, personaldigital assistant or PDA, etc. Although one mobile device is shown inFIG. 1, multiple mobile devices from multiple users can also be applied.Other devices such as desktops or traditional analog phones may also beutilized by users to contact support center 103.

Support center 103 (also referred to as a customer service center orcall center) may be implemented in a centralized facility or server.Alternatively, support center 103 may be implemented in multiplefacilities or servers in a distributed manner (e.g., cloud-based serviceplatforms). Support center 103 provides support services to a variety ofproducts or services from a variety of clients or vendors. A client maybe a manufacturer, a distributor, a retailer, a service provider orbroker, a purchasing facility (e.g., Amazon™, Expedia™, or ISIS™), or acombination thereof. In one embodiment, support center 103 includesservice APIs 107 to communicate with other systems such as mobile device101, client's site 117, online community forum 120, contact center 104including agents or experts 105, administrators 125, client backendsystem 122, manufacturer backend system 123, and other auxiliary systems124 (e.g., billing system). Client backend system 122 and manufacturerbackend system 123 may be implemented as a Web server or other types ofservers using a variety of network connections or communicationprotocols. Support center 103 can handle service requests from customersof multiple clients. For example, a support center may handle customerservice requests for a number of retail sales companies, sales calls forcatalog sales companies, and patient follow-up contacts for health careproviders. In such a structure, the support center may receive servicerequests directly from the customers or through client supportmanagement systems.

Support center 103 further includes data services system 111, supportservices system 112, and client integration system 113. Support servicessystem 112 is responsible for handling support services requests fromthe users, including identifying and registering a product, creating aninstance case context (also referred to herein as a touch plan),selecting and assigning a customer representative (also referred toherein as an agent or expert) to provide support services to the users,and managing work flows, etc. An agent may be selected based on a skillset or expertise of the agent, as well as other factors such asgeographic location, of the agent. The term “agent” refers to supportcenter personnel or a computerized application, in some cases, thatrespond to customer requests. An agent may be locally situated at thesupport center or remotely situated over a network.

Data services system 111 is responsible for managing and tracking datastored in data warehouse 114, including knowledgebase 115 and customerinteractive history 116. Data services system 111 is also responsiblefor analyzing the data stored in data warehouse 114 and otherinformational sources (e.g., client backend system 122, manufacturerbackend system 123, KB 121, and KB 119, etc.) to collect performancestatistics or to generate some solution articles to be published in anonline publishing forum for self-support purposes. Client integrationsystem 113 is responsible for integrating support information andprocesses to be customized in a client hosted support environment suchas client hosted site 117, which can be a Web site or other serversusing a variety of network connections and/or communication protocols.The term “client” refers to an entity interested in establishing ormaintaining a relationship with the customer, on whose behalf thesupport center processes support services requests.

Support center 103 further includes Web interface 108 to allow a user orclient to access certain functionalities or resources of support center103 over the Internet, such as information stored in data warehouse 114(e.g., knowledgebase 115). For example, Web interface 108 may allow auser to browse or search information stored in KB 115 or alternatively,to allow an administrator to configure certain settings of a client(e.g., business rules of the client). Support center 103 furtherincludes a multi-channel communication system 109 to provide one or morecommunication channels to any user or client to substantiallyconcurrently access support center 103. Examples of communicationchannels include email, chat, texting (e.g., short messaging services orSMS), voice (e.g., automated IVR, real-time, or VoIP), video, Web (e.g.,Web conferencing), and/or online community forum (e.g., Facebook™ orTwitter™), etc. Note that multi-channel communication system 109 may befully or partially integrated with support center 103 or alternatively,it may be maintained or provided by a third party or partner (e.g.,communicatively coupled via service API 107 over a network).

Support center 103 further includes an automatic caller distribution(ACD) system 110 to receive, route, and manage voice calls exchanged viamulti-channel communication system 109. An ACD is a device that handlesincoming and outgoing call volume, from, and to the customers. It sendsa call to a selected or first available customer representative and ifall the customer service representatives are busy, plays a recordedmessage and puts calls in a queue until a customer representativebecomes available. When a customer calls into the customer servicecenter, the ACD distributes the incoming calls between various customerservice representatives in a manner that ensures that the customer isconnected to the correct representative in minimal time. The ACD keepstrack of the estimated wait time of each queue of customers. Theestimated wait time for an incoming call is the time for which thecustomer has to wait until he/she is connected with a customerrepresentative at the customer service center.

A customer can obtain support services from support center 103 via avariety of communication mechanisms. A customer can initiate a supportrequest to contact a live agent such as agents 105 in a live manner.Alternatively, a customer may browse certain knowledgebase, such as KB115 via Web interface 108 or KB 119 via client's site 117, in an attemptto find a solution to a problem of a product he/she purchased from amanufacturer via a client of support center 103. A knowledgebase storestechnical manuals and technical information. In addition to this, theknowledgebase may store certain automated responses and informationrelated to general queries from the customers. Further, theknowledgebase may store details of interactions occurring between eachcustomer and the support center, for a certain period of time. Theinteraction may include placing a request or a posted query throughemail or a query entered to search for information in the knowledgebase.Further, the responses sent to the customers through emails may bestored in the knowledgebase.

In one embodiment, when browsing a knowledgebase on a Web forum, aone-touch button such as one-touch button 118 may be provided to allow acustomer to initiate a support service request to reach an agent ofsupport center 103 or an agent of the corresponding Web site. In thisconfiguration, live support may be a fee-based or subscription-basedsupport service. Furthermore, a customer may also access KB 121 ofonline community discussion forum 120, such as Facebook™, Twitter™, orYoutube™, to obtain an answer or solution to its problem.

According to one embodiment, one-touch application 106 is installed onmobile device 101 of a customer or user, where one-touch application 106can serve as a central service point to support center 103 that providessupport services to a variety of products or services provided by avariety of vendors. The vendors can be, for example, manufacturers,distributors, retailers, service brokers, purchasing houses, etc. of theproducts. Vendors may be the clients of support center 103 or entitieshaving a business relationship with support center 103. A user (alsoreferred to herein as a customer) can activate one-touch application 106from the user's mobile device 101 to reach agents 105 the support center103 or KB data center 114 via a variety of communication channels ormedia, such as, for example, email, chat, voice (including automatedinteractive voice recognition or IVR, voice over Internet protocol orVoIP), video, Web, and/or online community-based forum, etc. One-touchapplication 106 can be a thin/thick client application or a Web-basedapplication.

Note that a support center described throughout this application is notlimited to a traditional support center or call center, nor is itimplemented in a single physical location. A support center describedherein represents a collection of service logic or providerscommunicatively coupled to each other over a network in a distributed ora cloud-based fashion. The term of a support center herein representsany kind of service providers that provide a variety of services tocustomers or users. As described throughout this application, a supportcenter can be a set of enabling cloud-based service APIs, which enable avariety of consumer product services and support offerings via anintelligent set of technologies providing automated and/or livecommunications. In one embodiment, services provided by a support centercan include, but not limited to: 1) user, product, and loyaltyregistration and support services; 2) product wish list, reviews, andcomparisons; 3) purchasing and accessorizing services; 4) socialcommunity support and integration services; 5) intelligent knowledgesupport services; and 6) integrated sales and product dispositionservices, etc.

Also note that an agent, an expert, or a customer representativedescribed throughout this application is not limited to a real person.The term of an agent, an expert, or a customer representative can alsorefer to any processing logic or functional block that is configured orprogrammed to provide automated services to a customer, for example, viaservices APIs of the support center, without a need of a real personinvolved. Such processing logic and/or functional blocks can beimplemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a support centeraccording to one embodiment of the invention. For example, the system asshown in FIG. 2 may be implemented as a part of support center 103 ofFIG. 1. Note that for purposes of illustration, certain referencenumbers for components having the same or similar functionalities aremaintained the same across different figures. Referring to FIG. 2,support services system 112 includes, but is not limited to,registration module 201, touch plan engine 202, persuasive engine 203,proactive service module 204, case management module 205, and securitymodule 206. Data services system 111 includes, but is not limited to,analysis module 207, reporting module 208, logging module 209, andpublication module 210. Note that components 201-210 are shown forillustration purposes only. They may be implemented in differentconfigurations. Certain modules may be implemented as a single module orbe integrated in other systems or components.

Data warehouse 114 includes, but is not limited to, self-support KB 211,internal support KB 212, client database (DB) 213, product database 214,and customer database 215. Internal support KB 212 may store any supportinformation or communications between an agent and a customer.Self-support KB 211 contains published information extracted from otherinformational sources, such as internal support KB 212 and other systems(e.g., client backend systems 122 and manufacturer backend systems 123).Self-support KB 211 allows a customer to browse in an attempt to find asolution for the customer's problem, hopefully without having to contacta live support agent. Client database 213 may store any client relatedinformation, including a client profile for each client supported bysupport center 103. For example, client database 213 may store client'spreference of communication channels to be utilized between a customerand an agent. Client database 213 may also contain membershipinformation of the customers.

Product information store 216 may store any user manual or technicalmanual of products while product intelligence store 217 may storecustomer loyalty, rewards, or product rating information of theproducts. Product detailed information may further include complementaryproducts and services, availability, etc. Such information may be drawnfrom external systems such as client's backend systems 122 and/ormanufacturer's backend systems 123.

Customer profile store 218 may store any customer related informationsuch as personal information (e.g., name, address, phone numbers, sex,age), security credential, device ID of its mobile device, etc. Customerasset store 219 may store any product that has been registered by acustomer. Customer interactive history store 220 may store informationregarding any interaction between a customer and an agent of previoussupport sessions, such as topics, detailed discussions, time of thediscussions, contact mechanisms used, reasons of the support, productsor services involved in the discussions, last agent or expert thecustomer interacted with, etc.

Other databases may also be included and utilized. For example, an agentor expert database may be maintained for the purpose of selecting anappropriate agent or expert in response to a support service from acustomer. An agent and expert information database may include a profilefor each agent or expert, respectively, that includes individual agentor expert identifier, individual name, address, communication deviceinformation, personal information (e.g., age, sex, hobbies, physicalcondition, spoken languages, ethnicity, geographic area of expertise,etc.), individual skills and/or areas of expertise. The agent/expertdatabase may further include day(s) and time(s) during which and/orareas in which the agent/expert may be contacted to service customercontacts and/or a number of times over a selected period in which theagent/expert may be contacted to service customer contacts (e.g.,similar to presence information).

In addition, a service statistics database may also be maintained. Aservice statistics database may represent any database that stores datarelated to the operation and management of the support center system103. Data such as the number of customers in queue at a certain date andtime, the duration of support contact in queue, the rate of contactabandonment, and the use of communication resources are stored in thestatistics database. Note that the databases and data stores are shownand described for the purposes of illustration only. These databases anddata stores can be implemented or configured in a variety ofconfigurations, which may be implemented locally or remotely over anetwork. Note that some databases or data stores may be implemented as asingle database or store or multiple databases or stores. For example,customer interactive history store 220 may be implemented as part ofinternal support KB 212.

In one embodiment, registration module 201 is responsible forregistering a customer and/or a product of a customer, where thecustomer's personal information or preferences may be stored in customerprofile store 218, while the registered product information may bestored in customer asset store 219 of customer database 215. Forexample, when a customer installs a one-touch application (e.g.,one-touch application 106) on its mobile device, the customer typicallyperforms an initial login to set up a user account, including a usernameand/or password, as well as customer's preferences (e.g., communicationchannel preferences). In one embodiment, registration module 201 canalso be used to assist in registering a user for other accounts such asa loyalty account across one or more loyalty programs, a rewardsprogram, etc. This information may be stored in customer profile store218. In addition, a unique device ID such as a MAC address or IMSI codemay be captured and stored in customer profile store 218. As a result,when the customer subsequently launches the one-touch application, thecustomer can be automatically authenticated by security module 206 basedon this information without requiring the customer to provide the sameinformation again.

According to one embodiment, when a one-touch application (e.g.,one-touch application 106) is activated or launched from a mobile deviceby a user, the one-touch application is configured to communicate withservice API 107. Service API 107 invokes security module 206 toauthenticate the user based on the information (e.g., MAC or IMSI)transmitted from the one-touch application without requiring the user tospecifically provide user information.

Once the user has been authenticated, according to one embodiment,service API 107 transmits a personalized page having a list of one ormore products from customer asset store 219 that have been registered tothe user. The list of the registered products may be displayed on adisplay of the mobile device, where each product is associated with oneor more communication channels that are available for the user tocontact an agent of the support center. In one embodiment, theavailability of the communication channels is determined based on theuser preference obtained from customer profile 218 and the client/vendorpreference from client database 213 at that point in time. Such userpreference and client/vendor preference may be configured in a userprofile and client/vendor profile, respectively, which may be maintainedby the support center.

In response to a selection of one or more of the available communicationchannels received at the service API, according to one embodiment, aunique case identification (ID) is instantly created by case managementmodule 205 to uniquely represent a current instant of the support case.In addition, a touch plan is created by touch plan engine 202 andtracked by the unique case ID, where the touch plan represents a roadmapor outline of the corresponding support case activities to be performedthroughout the life of the touch plan. The touch plan is updatedregarding all activity of the user and is forwarded to an agent assignedto the current case and a communication session is established betweenthe assigned agent and the user via the selected communication channel.Throughout the session the touch plan is updated on all activity betweenthe user, agent and their respective applications.

An agent may be selected based on a variety of considerations, such as askill set or expertise of the agent, as well as whether the agent hasprevious experience with the same customer. The touch plan may includeone or more references linked with all the information related to thecurrent instant support service, such as related product information,client information, customer information, and support history with thecustomer, etc., such that the agent can provide the best possibleservices to the customer. The touch plan may further include suggestionor prediction of products or services that the agent can provide thecustomer an alternative solution. The suggestion or prediction may begenerated by persuasive engine 203 based on the product information andthe customer's interactive history, etc. The interaction between theuser and the agent is logged by logging module 209 and tracked based onthe touch plan and the unique case ID, which may be stored in aninteraction history database 220, for example, for subsequent analysisby analysis module 207.

Processing logic associated with the touch plan (e.g., touch planengine, case management module, or some other logic) also monitors forpositive and negative activities from the user, the agent and respectiveapplications. If a negative event is occurring the processing logic canperform adjustments according to the touch plan in knowledge provided,agent scripting spoken to the user and many others in a manner such toturn the interaction positive (e.g., adapt to changing conditions andcircumstances). If the activity is positive the processing logic canprovide an additional activity in and around product or service upsell,cross sell, upgrades, and product sales, etc. The positive and negativeactivity monitoring and adjustments are not limited to a user and agent,they can support any form of interaction even long running interactionsthat exceed the user activity for any period of time.

In some situations, according to one embodiment of the invention, thetouch plan may include information that identifies a relationshipbetween two products or services that have been purchased via a client(e.g., purchasing house). When a first product/service changes, thesupport center may determine that a second product/service may need tochange as well based on the touch plan. Accordingly, proactive servicemodule 204 is configured to proactively notify the user regarding thepossible change of the second product/service and offers supportservices for the second product/service, without requiring the user toinitiate a support call. A suggestion or offer can be made to thecustomer by persuasive engine 203 based on the information obtained fromdatabases 211-215 of data warehouse 114.

According to one embodiment, prior to contacting an agent, a list ofsupport options may be presented to the user, including a link to apublication forum that may contain one or more solutions to a problemassociated with the user. Such solutions may be generated by publicationmodule 210 by extracting certain information from knowledgebase from avariety of informational sources, such as, for example, internal supportKB 212, client/vendor KB (e.g., client database 213, client KB 119, andclient backend system), manufacturer KB (e.g., product database 214 andmanufacturer backend system), online community KB (e.g., KB 121), and/orcustomer interactive history KB 220, etc. As a result, a user may find asolution from the publication forum and does not need to contact anagent of the support center, which in turn may lower the cost for theclient and/or the customer. This is also referred to as a call avoidancefeature. Certain information from data warehouse 114 may be queried andreported by reporting module 208.

In one embodiment, client integration system 113 is responsible forintegrating customized client data, which may be used by client's othersystems such as client's own Web site (e.g., site 117). For each ofclients 221-222 supported by support center 103, a set of one or moreclient business rules (e.g., rules 223-224) is provided and processed byclient processing module (e.g., modules 225-226). These rules andprocessing modules may be provided by the client's developer andintegrated with support center via an API (e.g., service API 107). Theclient business rules may further define one or more processes ormethods that have been specifically tailored to certain clients' needs.These methods may be invoked by the associated touch plan under certaincircumstances.

Note that components or modules shown in FIG. 2 are described for thepurpose of illustration only; more or fewer components or modules mayalso be implemented. For example, a customer satisfaction system (CSAT)may also be implemented within support center 103. A CSAT systemprovides a feedback form to a customer, through a variety ofcommunication channels at the completion of a request or a query made bythe customer. The feedback form filled out and provided by customers isstored, reviewed, and analyzed by the CSAT system. All feedback formsstored in the CSAT system are used as a tool to conduct a customerservice related survey. The feedback forms are, further used to enhancethe service provided by support center 103.

In one embodiment, system as shown in FIG. 2 may be implemented as apart of the GIGAPOP™ system available from TeleTech Holdings, Inc. ofEnglewood, Colo. The GIGAPOP™ system, in embodiments, is a centralizeddatacenter facility for contact center specific technology. The GIGAPOP™system, in embodiments, provides hosted interaction managementtechnologies, including, but not limited to, chat and web collaborationsupport for agents engaged in providing customer service and salessupport to retail store customers. Also, the GIGAPOP™ system includesinteraction disposition data collection, data warehousing, reporting,and related systems. The GIGAPOP™ system coordinates communication withcomponents of support center 103 and outside systems (e.g., backendsystems 122-123).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a mobile deviceaccording to one embodiment of the invention. For example, mobile device300 may represent mobile device 101 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 3,mobile device 300 includes, but is not limited to, one-touch application106 communicatively coupled (e.g., via an API such as a plug-ininterface) to a variety of communication client applications, such as,for example, voice application 304, scanner/camera application 305,email application 306, chat application 307, texting application 308,and video chat or conferencing application 309, etc. In addition, mobiledevice 300 includes a Web browsing application 310 to access the Web.Note that communication client applications 304-309 may be Web-basedapplications that can be accessed via Web browser 310. One-touchapplication 106 can also access user credentials 301 (e.g., username andpassword) and device ID 302 (e.g., MAC address or which can be used toauthenticate a customer when accessing the support center. One-touchapplication 106 can also access and/or maintain personal profile 303 ofthe customer, which may contains certain personal information such asname, address, payment information, personal preferences, etc.

One-touch application 106 can be downloaded from an application store(e.g., iTune from Apple® Inc.) and installed on mobile device 300.One-touch application 106 may be specifically developed, configured, ortailored to a specific client of the support center. Alternatively,one-touch application 106 may be developed and maintained by the supportcenter and capable of being configured to a variety of clients. As aresult, a customer can use one-touch application 106 as a central orglobal services point to access the support center that provides supportservices to one or more products of the customer without theconventional unpleasant customer support experience.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing customersupport services according to one embodiment of the invention. Forexample, method 400 may be performed by system 100 of FIG. 1. Referringto FIG. 4, at block 401, a one-touch application is downloaded from anapplication store and installed on a mobile device of a customer. Oncethe one-touch application has been installed, the customer may initiallylaunch the one-touch application to access the support center to set upa customer account and register the customer and/or its mobile device,including providing user credential (e.g., username and password) forlogin purposes. The one-touch application may also provide the supportcenter a device ID that uniquely identifies the mobile device, such as,for example, a MAC address or IMSI code, which may be stored in a userprofile (e.g., profile store 218) of the support center. Suchinformation may be subsequently utilized to authenticate the customerand/or the mobile device automatically, without requiring the customerto specifically provide the same information for the purposes ofauthentication.

Once the one-touch application has been installed on the mobile device,at block 402, the customer can launch the one-touch application toaccess a service API of the support center over a network for login andto transmit a machine-readable code associated with a product to thesupport center for registering the product. The support center is ableto compile all the necessary information including, but is not limitedto, product information, client information, and customer informationbased on the machine-readable code, without requiring the customer tospecifically provide the same information. The machine-readable code mayrepresent at least one of a serial number, a UPC code, a QR code, or ahigh capacity color barcode (HCCB) of the product. Alternatively, themachine-readable code may represent an electronic receipt of a purchaseorder via a purchasing facility (e.g., Amazon™, Expedia™ and ISIS™). Themachine-readable code may be obtained by scanning the code from theproduct using a scanner or camera of the mobile device or alternatively,electronically received from a client of the support center.

At block 403, the one-touch application can also retrieve informationfrom the support center via the service API concerning all of theproducts associated with the customer that have been registered with thesupport center. The one-touch application is configured to display on adisplay of the mobile device a personalized page having a list ofregistered products. Each of the registered products may be associatedwith one or more communication channels that are available for thecustomer to initiate a contact with an agent of the support center. Theavailability of the communication channels may be determined andcompiled based on the customer's preferences and the client'spreferences.

Optionally, at block 404, a link to a self-support publication forum mayalso be presented to the customer to allow a customer to access certainpublished articles that may contain a solution to the customer's problemwith the product, such that the customer does not have to contact a liveagent for solving the same problem. This in turn may lower the supportcost for the client and/or the customer as a live support service can beavoided. If the customer decides to contact a live agent, at block 405,the customer can select at least one of the available communicationchannels and a communication session will be established via theselected communication channel(s) between the customer and an agent thathas been assigned to the instant support case. An agent may be selectedbased on a variety of considerations, such as its expertise or skillset, prior relationship with the customer, demographic location,language, or other factors.

Efficient Mechanism for Product Registration

As described above, a conventional method for registering a productrequires a customer to specifically provide all the detailed informationregarding the product. Such process is time consuming and sometimesdiscourages a customer from registering a product to begin with, whichmay lead to an unsatisfied customer. According to one embodiment, anefficient mechanism is provided for a customer to register a product ina simple way without the hassle of a conventional time consumingregistration process.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for registering aproduct according to one embodiment of the invention. For example,system 500 may be implemented as part of system 100 of FIG. 1. Referringto FIG. 5, mobile device 101 of a customer is communicatively coupled tosupport center 103 over a network. According to one embodiment, when thecustomer desires to register a product, the customer can scan amachine-readable code 501 of the product to obtain an image of themachine-readable code using scanner or camera 502 of mobile device 101.As described above, a machine-readable code may represent at least oneof a serial number, barcode, UPC code, QR code, HCCB code, or anelectronic receipt of a purchase order of a product.

The customer can then utilize one-touch application 106 to accesssupport center 103 via service API 107. The customer and/or mobiledevice is authenticated by a security module (e.g., security module 206of FIG. 2). The customer may be authenticated automatically by thesecurity module based on the customer information previously providedduring registration of the customer and/or mobile device 101, withouthaving the customer to specifically provide detailed customer or mobiledevice information. For example, a customer may be authenticated by thecustomer's credentials such as username and password cached andautomatically provided by one-touch application. Mobile device 101 maybe authenticated or verified based on its unique device ID such as MACaddress or IMSI code of mobile device 101.

Thereafter, according to one embodiment, one-touch application 106 isconfigured to transmit the machine-readable code to service API 107. Thetransmitted machine-readable code may be the actual machine-readablecode converted from an image obtained from scanner or camera 502, forexample, via an optical character recognition (OCR) process. OCR is themechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten,typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely usedto convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize arecord-keeping system in an office, or to publish the text on a website.OCR makes it possible to edit the text, search for a word or phrase,store it more compactly, display or print a copy free of scanningartifacts, and apply techniques such as machine translation,text-to-speech and text mining to it. Alternatively, one-touchapplication 106 will either locally translate the scanned image via theone-touch application on the mobile device thus sending the translatedproduct information to the service API or simply transmits an image ofthe machine-readable code or an image of an electronic receipt toservice API 107, where registration module 201 can process thetranslated image data or extract or invoke another process to extractthe actual machine-readable code.

Based on the machine-readable code received from one-touch application106, registration module 201 is configured to determine and compile allnecessary information concerning the product and a vendor of the product(e.g., client). In one embodiment, registration module 201 accessesproduct information store 216 to obtain detailed product information andaccesses client database 213 to obtain client information of a clientfrom which the product was purchased based on the machine-readable code.Product information may be acquired via a combination of severalmethods, such as, for example, 1) licensed from a product data providerlike CNET or other services where data will be provided in a self-hosteddatabase and updated through a batch process on a pre-determinedfrequent basis in order to have the latest product information at hand;and 2) via an API call to a manufacturer database of products where thedata is not provided via a service like CNET or others. The data iscollected in a support center product database and enhanced with datanecessary to provide services to a user via the service API.

In addition, registration module 201 can further determine and compilecustomer information from customer profile store 218 based on customerlogin and/or device identification information. The compiled informationcan then be stored in customer asset store 219. Further, registrationmodule 201 may also compile and store in customer asset store 219 anyproduct related information such as product rebates, product warranties,product ratings, support ratings information, for example, from productintelligence store 217. Such information may be obtained from client'sbackend system (s) and manufacturer's backend system(s). Furthermore,registration module 201 may also determine, for each registered product,a list of one or more communication channels that are available for thecustomer to reach an agent for support services of that particularproduct. The availability of the communication channels may bedetermined based on client's preference available from client database213 and customer's preference available from customer profile store 219.Thus, customer asset store 219 is configured to store all of theproducts that have been registered by the customer. Such information maybe subsequently presented to the customer when the customer launches theone-touch application from is mobile device and accesses support centre103 via service API 107.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a list of products that have been registeredby a customer and stored in customer asset store 219. In this example,the products are related to an electronic device purchased fromretailers or manufacturers. Referring to FIG. 6, the registered productscan be arranged by retailer 601, manufacturer 602, products 603, andreceipt 604, where retailer 601 and/or manufacturer may be clients ofthe support center. Note that a retailer and a manufacturer may be thesame entity. In this example, when a customer registers products608-609, the customer only needs to transmit a machine readable code ofeach product, such as at least one of machine-readable codes 605-606,respectively. The registration module is configured to obtain andcompile the rest of the information, such as the manufacturers,retailers, including warranty information 610, etc. Alternatively, thecustomer can simply transmit an electronic receipt 604 having a receiptID such as transaction ID 607 and based on transaction ID 607 of receipt604, the registration module is capable of compiling the sameinformation as shown in FIG. 6. As a result, the customer does not haveto provide complicated detailed product information and retailerinformation for registering the products.

According to one embodiment, the information as shown in FIG. 6 can beretrievable, for example, by reporting module 208 of FIG. 2, transmittedto a customer, and displayed on a display of a mobile device of thecustomer. FIGS. 7A and 7B are screenshots illustrating a graphical userinterface (GUI) of a one-touch application displayed on a display of amobile device according to one embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 7A, GUI 700 can display product information based on retailer 701,manufacturer 702, and actual product 703. When a user activates tab 703,detailed product information concerning one or more registered products,in this example, product 704, is displayed in GUI 700.

In addition, one or more communication channels 705 that are availableto contact an agent are also displayed as graphical representations oricons thereof. In this example, the choices of voice, email and chat areavailable. The availability of communication channels 705 may bedetermined based on customer's preferences and client's preferences. Acustomer can select one or more of the available communication channels705 to establish a communication session with an agent or expert.Furthermore, a customer can also access an online community forum todiscuss with other users or agents or for self-support purposes viagraphical representations 706.

If there is additional information available for the product, an icon707 is displayed for indicating such a purpose. When a customeractivates icon 707, more information concerning the product is displayedas shown in FIG. 7B. In this example, referring to FIG. 7B, rebates andfree rewards are offered. A graphical representation 710 may bedisplayed indicating a number of the items available to be claimed. Theadditional information concerning the product may be obtained fromproduct intelligence store 217 of FIG. 2. A customer may also accessretailer 708 and warranty information 709 by activating the respectivegraphical representation.

FIG. 8 shows transaction flows among certain components of a supportcenter for registering a product according to one embodiment of theinvention. Referring to FIG. 8, initially during transactions 801, auser or customer downloads and installs one-touch application 106 ontothe customer's mobile device. One-touch application 106 communicateswith service API 107 to perform an initial login process at the supportcenter, including creating a user account with proper username andpassword. In addition, a device ID such as MAC address and IMSI code mayalso be captured to authenticate the mobile device. The user informationand the device information may be stored in an identity store ofcustomer DB 215. Subsequently, during transactions 802, the user can login and be authenticated by a security module based on the userinformation and device information stored in customer DB 215. Once theuser has been successfully authenticated, the user can register one ormore products via one-touch application 106, where the registeredproducts may be stored in customer asset store of customer DB 215.During transactions 803, the user can also log in and edit certain userprofile information such as user preferences, etc.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for registering a productwith a support center according to one embodiment of the invention. Forexample, method 900 may be performed by system 100 of FIG. 1. Referringto FIG. 9, at block 901, a one-touch application is launched from amobile device of a customer, where the one-touch application isassociated with a client and communicatively coupled to a supportcenter. At block 902, a machine-readable code of a product is scannedinto an electronic image using a scanner or camera of the mobile device,where the machine-readable code can be at least one of a serial number,barcode, UPC code, QR code, HCCB code, and electronic receipt. At block903, the machine-readable code is transmitted by the one-touchapplication to a service API of a support center. In response, at block904, the support center registers the product based on themachine-readable code and the customer information associated with theone-touch application, without requiring the customer to specificallyprovide detailed product information.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for registering aproduct according to another embodiment of the invention. For example,method 1000 may be performed by support center 103 of FIG. 1. Referringto FIG. 10, at block 1001, a request is received from a one-touchapplication of a mobile device of a customer for registering a product,where the request includes a machine-readable code uniquely identifyingthe product or service. The machine-readable code may be obtained byscanning of the product using a scanner or camera of the mobile device.The machine-readable code can be at least one of serial number, barcode,UPC code, QR code, HCCB code, and electronic receipt. At block 1002, thecustomer is identified from a customer database of the support centerbased on user information extracted from the request (e.g., username,password, device ID). At block 1003, the product is identified from aproduct database based on the machine-readable code, without requiringthe customer to specifically provide the detailed product information.At block 1004, the identified product is associated with the identifiedcustomer and the information is stored in a customer asset store forsubsequent support purposes. The information can be utilizedsubsequently for supporting the product or service.

Support Service APIs

According to some embodiments, certain components or systems of asupport center may be fully or partially integrated within the supportcenter. Some components may be developed and/or maintained by a thirdparty (e.g., payment processing facility) or a partner enterprise (e.g.,client or manufacturer backend systems) and communicatively coupled tothe support center. According to one embodiment, a set of service APIsmay be utilized to communicate various internal or external componentsto further improve the efficiency and performance, as well as providingmore flexibility to the support center. The service API may also beutilized by customers to access the support center via a variety ofcommunication channels.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an example of service API of asupport center according to one embodiment of the invention. Forexample, system 1100 may be implemented as a part of system 100 ofFIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 11, system 1100 includes service APIs 107 toallow customer 1101 to reach support center via a variety ofcommunication mediums such as chat, email, online forum, Web, video,voice, etc. Customer 1101 may initiate a contact with the support centervia a one-touch application installed on the customer's mobile device asdescribed above. Service APIs 107 may include a variety of subsets ofAPIs such as integrated service API 1102, support service API 1103,automated service API 1104, and partner service API 1105. Some or all ofthese APIs 1102-1105 may be implemented as cloud-based service APIs,where the service APIs may be maintained by a third party serviceprovider as a part of software as a server (SaaS) on a subscriptionbasis.

In one embodiment, integrated service API 1102 may be utilized bycertain integrated service providers such as payment services 1106,dispatch services, location services, tracking and delivering services,short messaging services (SMS), social networking and blogging services(e.g., Twitter™), and customer relationship management (CRM) services(e.g., Salesforce™), etc. Automated service API 1104 may be utilized byAI Artificial Intelligence services, BOT services automated services(like roBOT) that mimic the actions or activity of a human processes oractivities making the user think they are talking to a live person,frequently-asked question (FAQ) services 1107, survey services,eLearning services, etc. Partner service API 1105 may be utilized bycertain partner entities of the support center such as social knowledge1108, multi-channel communication system 1109, and social CRM (e.g.,Lithium™), etc.

In one embodiment, support service API 1103 can be utilized by customer1101 to reach the support center. Support service API 1103 may beutilized, for example, via a one-touch application launched from amobile device, to register a user, register a product, accessknowledgebase (e.g., KBs 212-213), and obtain a support service from anagent, AI, BOT service, etc. Initially, when a customer downloads andinstalls a one-touch application on its mobile device, the customer canaccess support center 103 via support service API 1103 to create a useraccount, which may be performed by registration module 201.Subsequently, the customer may also log into the account via supportservice API 1103, which may be authenticated by security module 206, toregister a product and/or to retrieve a list of registered one or moreproducts that have been registered with support center, using certaintechniques described above.

When there is a need to contact support center 103 on a product, thecustomer can activate the one-touch application from its mobile deviceor press a one-touch button from a Web site, which will access and loginto support center 103 via support service API 1103, where the customerand/or the mobile device can be authenticated by security module 206. Inaddition, case management module 205 is configured to create a uniquecase ID that uniquely identifies the instant support case. The case IDmay be created based on a combination of at least some of the productidentifiers (e.g., serial number, barcode, QR code, HCCB code, receipttransaction ID), client information (e.g., retailer ID, manufacturerproduct ID), customer information (e.g., personal information, username,password, mobile device ID), and other information (e.g., time, date).

In one embodiment, touch plan engine 202 is configured to create a touchplan which is identified and tracked by the case ID. The touch plan maybe created according to one or more business rules or templates of theclient. The touch plan represents a roadmap, an outline, a trackingrecord, or case context for the instant support case. The touch plan mayalso include or reference to other aiding information, such as, productinformation, product intelligence information, customer history data,client information, and manufacturer information, etc., which may beretrieved and compiled from various informational sources such ascustomer database 215, client database 213, product database 214,knowledgebase 211-212, client and/or manufacturer backend systems, etc.The touch plan is then forwarded to an agent that has been assigned tothe instant case to allow the agent to have all the necessaryinformation to enable the agent to provide the best customer experience.The agent may be assigned based on a variety of factors, such as, skillset, expertise, demographic location, language, prior customerrelationship, etc.

FIG. 12 is a transactional diagram illustrating a processing flow of aproduct support service according to one embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 12, initially, a customer may launch one-touchapplication 106 from the customer's mobile device 101, which accessesservice API 107 for login and is authenticated by a security module ofthe support center during transaction 1201. Once the customer has beenauthenticated successfully, a customized or personalized page having alist of registered products is retrieved via service API 107 anddisplayed on a display of mobile device 101 during transaction 1202. Thecustomized page includes detailed product information obtained fromproduct database 214 and/or client information obtained from clientdatabase 213. The customized or personalized page may be similar to theones as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. At transaction 1203, a customer canselect one of the registered products and one or more of the availablecommunication channels to contact an agent of the support center. Inthis example, the customer selects a Web chat communication channel.

In response, service API 107 forwards information of the selectedcommunication channel, user information, and/or product information tocase management module 205. Case management module 205 is configured toinstantly create a case ID that uniquely identifies the instant supportsession or case and return the new case ID to service API 107 viatransaction 1204. Service API 107 in turn transmits the information totouch plan engine 202 via transaction 1205. In response, touch planengine 202 is configured to create a touch plan together with all thenecessary information and history data, select an appropriate agent, andforward the touch plan to the desktop of the selected agent viatransaction 1206. The agent may be selected based on a variety offactors or considerations as described above. The touch plan may furtherinvoke a persuasive engine during transaction 1207 to generate certaininformation to allow the agent to propose certain alternative solutionsto the customer's problem. Thereafter, the agent can start acommunication session (e.g., chat session) with the customer viatransaction 1208. After the support session ends, optionally duringtransaction 1209, touch engine may invoke a customer satisfaction unitto perform a customer survey concerning the support session just ended.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing supportservices to a customer according to one embodiment of the invention. Forexample, method 1300 may be performed by support center 103 of FIG. 1.Referring to FIG. 13, at block 1301, a request is received at a serviceAPI of a support center from a customer (e.g., via one-touch applicationlaunched from a mobile device) for support of a product of a client.Note that throughout this application, a product may be a retail product(e.g., an electronic device) or alternatively, a product may be aservice (e.g., airline or hotel service) provided by a service provideras a client to the support center. At block 1302, a unique case ID isgenerated based on at least some of the product information, clientinformation, and/or customer information associated with the request. Inone embodiment, such information may be obtained and/or compiled basedon a machine-readable code (e.g., barcode, S/N number, electronictransaction ID, etc.) that was received during the registration of theproduct or service, without requiring the customer to provide detailedinformation of the product or service. At block 1303, a personalizedpage having a list of communication channels available for contacting anagent is presented to the customer. At block 1304, in response to aselection of one or more of the communication channels received at theservice API, a touch plan is created, where the touch plan includes orhas references to information of the product, client, and customer. Atblock 1305, the touch plan is forwarded to an agent to allow the agentto communicate with the customer and to provide support services to thecustomer using information from the touch plan.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing supportservices to a customer according to another embodiment of the invention.For example, method 1400 may be performed by one-touch application 106of mobile device 101 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 14, at block 1401, inresponse to an activation of a one-touch application initiated from amobile device of a customer, a request is transmitted by the one-touchapplication to a service API of a support center for support services ofa product. At block 1402, a customized page having a list ofcommunication channels is received from the service API of the supportcenter, where the communication channels are those available for thecustomer to initiate a contact with an agent of the support center,which may be determined based on the client's preferences and customer'spreferences. In response to a selection of one or more communicationchannels, a communication session is established between the customerand the agent, where the interaction between the customer and the agentis tracked via a touch plan uniquely identified by a case ID.

Customized Pages for Support Services

As described above, a support center can handle support requests fromcustomers of multiple clients. For example, a support center may handlecustomer service calls for a number of retail sales companies, salescalls for catalog sales companies, and patient follow-up calls forhealth care providers. In such a structure, the support center mayreceive calls directly from the customers or through client callmanagement systems. Each client and/or customer may have differentsupport service requirements and demands. Conventional support centerstypically provide a one-size-fit-all support interface, which may notprovide the best customer experience.

According to some embodiments, a personalized page is constructed foreach customer based on a variety of information, such as customerinformation, client information, product information, and certainknowledgebase. The personalized page for each customer may be differentand specifically tailored to the corresponding customer's specificproducts and preferences, etc. The personalized page is presented to thecustomer when the customer launches the one-touch application from thecustomer's mobile device, such that the customer can have a veryimportant person (VIP) type of feeling and experience.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a system for creating apersonalized page for a customer according to one embodiment of theinvention. Referring back to FIGS. 1 and 2, according to one embodimentof the invention, when a customer launches one-touch application 106from its mobile device 101, one-touch application 106 accesses serviceAPI 107 to log into the support center. In response, service API 107invokes a security module (e.g., security module 206 of FIG. 2) toauthenticate the customer and/or its mobile device. Service API 107 mayprompt the customer to provide certain credentials such as username andpassword or alternatively, the security module may automaticallyauthenticate the customer and/or the customer's mobile device based onthe username and password cached by one-touch application 106 and/or adevice ID (e.g., MAC address, or IMSI) that uniquely identifies mobiledevice 101.

Upon having successfully authenticated the customer and/or mobile device101, service API 107 may invoke an analysis module (e.g., analysismodule 207) and/or reporting module (e.g., reporting module 208) tocompile all the necessary information to generate a personalized pagefor the customer. Referring to FIG. 15, in one embodiment, personalizedpage 1501 may be generated based on one or more products that have beenregistered by the customer and stored in customer asset store 219. Theproducts may be registered using certain techniques described above,such as, for example, based on a machine-readable code (e.g., serialnumber, barcode, QR code, UPC code, HCCB code, or transaction number ofan electronic receipt, etc.), without requiring the customer tospecifically provide the detailed product information.

For each of the registered products retrieved from customer asset store219, detailed product information may be retrieved or identified fromproduct information database 216, which may include informationretrieved from manufacturer and/or client backend systems. In addition,certain client information may be retrieved from client database 213.Client information may include client's preferences on communicationchannels that can be utilized to reach an agent of the support centerthat provides support services of a registered product on behalf of theclient. In addition, the client information may further include thenearby retail location or support center hosted by the client. Further,certain customer information may be retrieved from customer profilestore 218. The customer information typically includes customeridentity, customer personal information, customer financial information,customer type or membership class, customer sale history, customerservice history, and the like. The customer information may also includecustomer's preference on communication channels that the customerprefers to utilize to reach an agent of the support center. Theavailability of communication channels may be determined based on theclient's preference and customer's preference. The availablecommunication channels may also determined based on the presenceinformation 1502 of an agent assigned to the instant support case andthe customer, where the presence information 1502 may be provided by anexternal or third party presence service via service API 107 (e.g.,integrated and/or partner service API).

Presence information means any information associated with a networknode and/or endpoint device, such as a communication device, that is inturn associated with a person or identity. Examples of presenceinformation include registration information, information regarding theaccessibility of the person's endpoint device, the endpoint device'stelephone number or address, the recency of use of the endpoint deviceby the person, recency of authentication by the person to a networkcomponent, the geographic location of the person's endpoint device, thetype of media, format language, session and communications capabilitiesof the currently available person's communications devices, thepreferences of the person (e.g., contact mode preferences or profilessuch as the communication device to be contacted for specific types ofcontacts or under specified factual scenarios, contact time preferences,impermissible contact types and/or subjects such as subjects about whichthe person does not wish to be contacted, and permissible contact typeand/or subjects such as subjects about which the person does wish to becontacted). The presence information may include availabilityinformation from an electronic calendar or agenda maintained by theperson in a calendar application. Presence information can be userconfigurable, i.e., the user can configure the number and type ofcommunications and message devices by which they can be accessed and todefine different profiles that define the communications and messagingoptions presented to incoming contactors in specified factualsituations. The presence information can be associated with internal andexternal endpoints associated with each user.

Referring back to FIG. 15, personalized page 1501 may further includeproduct rebates, rewards, and warranties, etc. obtained from productintelligence database 217. Alternatively, the personalized page mayfurther include an upsell option or promotion, for example, generated bya persuasive engine, based on the product information and/or customer'spurchase or interactive history. Personalized page 1501 may furtherinclude a link to a self-support knowledgebase 211 that allows acustomer to attempt to find a solution to the customer's problem withouthaving to contact a live agent. Note that the above describedinformation may be previously compiled and stored in customer assetstore 219 or customer's profile when the customer registered theproducts. Alternatively, the above information can be dynamicallycompiled from various informational sources as described above inresponse to a request. FIGS. 7A and 7B are screenshots representingexamples of personalized page 1501. Thereafter, data representingpersonalized page 1501 is then transmitted by service API 107 toone-touch application 106 to be displayed on a display of mobile device101.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingpersonalized support services according to one embodiment of theinvention. For example, method 1600 may be performed by support center103 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 16, at block 1601, in response to alogin request from a one-touch application installed on a mobile deviceof a customer, the customer and/or mobile device is authenticated. Thecustomer may be automatically authenticated based on the username andpassword cached and transmitted by the one-touch application withoutrequiring the customer manually providing the same information. Inaddition, optionally for extra security, the customer may also beauthenticated based on a unique device ID (e.g., MAC address or IMSIcode) associated with the mobile device of the customer, such that itcan be certain that a person who knows the username and password alsohas physical possession of the mobile device. At block 1602, a list ofproducts that have been registered by the customer is retrieved from acustomer asset store. At block 1603, for each of the registeredproducts, customized information is compiled specifically tailored tothe respective registered product, customer, and/or client, includingcommunication channels that are currently available to reach an agentfor supporting the corresponding product. At block 1604, a personalizedpage containing the registered products is generated, each registeredproduct being associated with the compiled customized information. Atblock 1605, data representing the personalized page is transmitted tothe one-touch application to be displayed on a display of the mobiledevice.

As described above, the availability of communication channels may bedetermined based on the client's preference and customer's preference,as well as presence information of a selected agent and the customer atthe point in time. The preferred communication channels of a client anda customer may be different. For example, a client may want to utilizean automated or offline communication channels, rather than livecommunication channels for supporting certain products, which may reducethe cost for the services. Client's preferred communication channels maybe configured by an administrator of the client. Client preferredcommunication channels may be configured per campaign basis, per programor project basis, per product basis, per customer basis, or acombination thereof. For example, the preferred communication channelsmay be determined based on a membership of the customer (e.g., privilegeor loyalty) or a type of the product or promotion period. The privilegesof customer memberships may be purchased or subscribed.

In one embodiment, the available communication channels may be thosecommonly preferred by the customer and the client. For example, as shownin FIG. 17, in this example, the client prefers email and Webcommunication channels while the customer does not mind which of thechannels to be utilized. The available communication channels shouldthen be the email and Web communication channels.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for determiningavailability of communication channels according to one embodiment ofthe invention. Referring to FIG. 18, at block 1801, a request isreceived from a customer via a service API of a support center forcontacting an agent for support of a product provided by a client of thesupport center. The request may be initiated from a one-touchapplication of a mobile device associated with the customer. At block1802, processing logic accesses a customer profile to determine a firstlist of communication channels preferred by the customer. At block 1803,processing logic accesses a client profile to determine a second list ofcommunication channels preferred by the client. At block 1804,processing logic generates a third list of communication channels basedon the first and second lists. The third list represents one or morecommunication channels that are available for the customer to reach anagent of the support center. The available communication channels mayalso be subject to the presence information of the customer and/or theagent at the point in time. At block 1805, processing logic transmits,via the service API, the third list of communication channels to thecustomer (e.g., customer's one-touch application of its mobile device)to allow the customer to select one or more of the communicationchannels from the third list to contact an agent (or other services) ofthe support center.

Embodiments of Proactive Support Services

As described above, a support center can provide support services for avariety of products or services provided by a variety of manufacturersand/or clients. A customer may register and obtain support services fromthe support center for multiple products or services. In somesituations, certain registered products or services may be related toeach other. When one of the products or services is changed, anotherrelated product or service may need to be changed. For example, when acustomer purchases a travel package from a purchasing facility such asISIS™ or Expedia® as a client to the support center, where the travelpackage includes an airline ticket from an airline company as a firstvendor and a hotel reservation from a hotel chain as a second vendor.When the schedule of the airline ticket has been modified or canceled,for example, due to bad weather, in addition to rearrange the flight,the hotel reservation may need to be modified or canceled. Typically,the customer has to specifically contact the airline company torearrange the flight and specifically contact the hotel to change thehotel reservation. Sometimes, the customer may not realize that therelated products or services (e.g., hotel reservation) may need to bechanged.

According to one embodiment, when a customer registers multiple productsor services with the support center, a touch plan is created by thetouch engine. A relationship between a first product provided by a firstvendor and a second product provided by a second vendor is determined.The first and second products may be purchased by a customer via apurchasing facility associated with a client of the support center. Thefirst and second products can be registered with the support centerusing certain techniques described above. In response to a first eventreceived from the client or the first vendor indicating a change of thefirst product/service, a first message is transmitted to the user onbehalf of the client notifying the user the change of the firstproduct/service. In addition, a second message is automaticallytransmitted to the user offering a support service of a possible changeof the second product/service in view of the relationship between thefirst and second products, without requiring the user to initiate arequest for the support service with respect to the secondproduct/service.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a support system for providingproactive services according to one embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 19, in this example, a customer purchases product 1901from a first vendor, product 1902 from a second vendor, and product 1903from a third vendor. The purchase has been made via purchasing facility1904, which is a client of support center 103. The customer may utilizeits mobile device to perform the purchase transaction. The customer mayreceive electronic receipt 1905 from client 1904, for example, via anemail. Electronic receipt 1905 may include a purchase transaction IDthat identifies the purchased products 1901-1903. In this example,product 1901 may be a flight service provided by an airline company.Product 1902 may be a hotel service (e.g., hotel reservation) providedby a hotel. Product 1903 may be car rental service (e.g., car rentalreservation) provided by a car rental company.

Once the customer receives receipt 1905, the customer can activateone-touch application 106 from its mobile device 101 to transmitelectronic receipt 1905 to support center 103 for registering products1901-1903, without having to specifically provide detailed informationof products 1901-1903 using at least some of the registration techniquesdescribed above. Alternatively, customer can also individually provideinformation concerning each of the products 1901-1903 (e.g., flightitinerary, hotel reservation confirmation, car rental reservationconfirmation), where the support center can identify the relationshipsamongst the items. Further, electronic receipt 1905 may be automaticallyreceived by support center 103 from client 1904 and products 1901-1903may be automatically registered without having the customer initiatingthe registration. The registration module of support center 103 mayidentify products 1901-1903 based on information extracted fromelectronic receipt, as well as the associated customer information,product information, and client information obtained from theappropriate informational sources as described above. The registeredproduct information is then stored in customer asset store 219. Inaddition, case management module 205 may generate a unique case ID fortracking the current instant support case.

Furthermore, touch plan engine 202 may generate touch plan 1906representing a support case context. In one embodiment, based on thetouch plan, an analysis is performed on the services or products todetermine the relationships among the products. In this example, theprocessing logic may determine that this is a travel packagerepresenting a trip of the customer. The hotel reservation (e.g.,product 1902) and the car rental reservation (e.g., product 1903) canonly be valid if the flight (e.g., product 1901) is on time. Anotherword, the change of schedule or cancellation of product/service 1901will have an impact on the validity of products/services 1902-1903. Therelationship information may also be implemented with the touch plan,for example, as triggering events or conditions, as well as processingrules.

In one embodiment, support center 103 communicates with each of theproduct or service providers 1901-1903 via a service API such as partnerservice API, collectively referred to as a partner network 1907. Supportcenter 103 may receive any update or notification from providers1901-1903 via the service API, for example, via a secured network suchas virtual private network (VPN). In one embodiment, when support center103 receives a notification from service provider 1901 indicating thatthere is a change regarding product 1901, the support center transmits anotification to mobile device 101 for the change of product 1901. Thenotification may be transmitted from support center 103 to mobile device101 via one or more of communication channels, such as, for example,text, email, or voice, etc. The selected communication channels can beconfigured by the customer during registration of the products and/orcustomer and stored in a customer profile (e.g., customer profile store218 of FIG. 2). The notification may be transmitted via the mostappropriate communication channel selected at the point in time based onthe presence information of the customer. The notification may beassociated with a one-touch button that allows the customer to contactan agent of the support center.

In addition, according to one embodiment, based on the touch plan,support center 103 determines whether the change of product 1901 has animpact on products 1902-1903. If it is determined that a possible changefor at least one of products 1902-1903 is needed, support center 103transmits at least a second notification on behalf of client 1904 tomobile device 101 indicating the possible changes of products 1902and/or 1903 without the customer having to initiate the contact withsupport center 103. In response to the notification(s), the customer canactivate one-touch application 106 from the customer's mobile device toobtain support services (e.g., via one or more available communicationchannels) as described above. As a result, a customer does not have toremember or determine which of the other products might be affected anddoes not have to initiate a support call for each of the affectedproducts. Also a result of the changes is provided to the user once alladjustments are processed.

In this situation, it is mutually beneficial to all parties involvedherein. The customers will be happy because they do not have to worryabout much their planned schedule (manifest) are being monitored up toand beyond the execution of each planned event (plane trip, car rental,hotel, etc.). More customers may look for the products or services thatare supported by support center 103 (e.g., with a good reputationsupport brand name) with the peace of mind that they will receive thebest possible customer satisfaction. Client 1904 will be happy becauseclient 1904 does not have to deal with all the support issues. Since thebest customer support is provided by support center 103, it will bringin more customers and business to client 1904 and product/serviceproviders 1901-1903.

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing proactivesupport services according to one embodiment of the invention. Referringto FIG. 20, at block 2001, an electronic receipt is received at aservice API of a support center from a customer or a client. Theelectronic receipt includes information (e.g., purchase transaction ID)identifying multiple product items that have been purchased by thecustomer via the client. The electronic receipt may be transmitted froma one-touch application running within a mobile device of the customeror by other means such as; a web application, API via the eWalletprovider, API via the travel company, etc. The one-touch application maybe associated with a client (e.g., purchasing facility such as Expediaor Amazon.com). At block 2002, the product items are registered withinthe support center based on the information extracted from theelectronic receipt, without requiring the customer specifically providethe detailed information of the product items. At block 2003, therelationships among the product items are determined based on theproduct information (e.g., schedules of a travel itinerary) and/orclient information associated with the electronic receipt. At block2004, a touch plan is created for the product items of the receipt. Thetouch plan represents a list of action items to be performed due to oneor more possible events or conditions associated with the at least oneproduct item that could happen.

FIG. 21 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing proactivesupport services according to another embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 21, at block 2101, in response to a signal indicatinga change of a first event of a first product or service item purchasedfrom a first product or service provider via a client, a firstnotification is transmitted to a mobile device of a customer on behalfof the client regarding the change. At block 2102, it is determinedwhether a second event of a second product or service item purchasedfrom a second product or service provider is affected due to the changeof the first event based on the touch plan associated with the customer.At block 2103, a second notification is transmitted to the mobile deviceof the customer indicating a possible needed change of a second event ofthe second product item, offering a list of one or more options tochange the second event, without requiring the customer to initiate thesupport request. In response to a selection of the options, at block2104, establish a communication session between the support center andthe customer, optionally with an agent or expert to help performing thechange of the second product item for the customer. The customer canelect to be notified of the event but not have to take any actionallowing (through approval within their profile) the support center(whether manual or automatically) to handle all details and reschedulingof planned events of the manifest or itinerary. Once complete a newmanifest or itinerary is provided to the customer. All activity is donein real-time to keep the customer updated and well informed.

Embodiments of Self-Support Mechanisms

Embodiments of the present invention provide numerous support servicesoptions to a variety of customers for a variety of products and servicesfrom a variety of vendors or clients. As described above, the supportservice options may include live communications with an agent or expertvia a variety of live communication channels, such as voice, chats,video conferences, etc. The support service options may also includeautomated (e.g., offline or delayed) communications with an agent orexpert, such as IVR, texting (e.g., SMS), emails, community discussionforums, etc. Further, the support service options may also includeonline community-based forum such as social communities, in whichservices may also be provided by peers or other members of thecommunities. According to one embodiment, the support service optionsfurther include a self-support option in which a customer may be able tobrowse and/or search the self-support knowledge to find a solution to aproblem of its product, without having to contact an agent or expert viathe live or automated communication mechanism.

It is useful to know that different service options may be associatedwith different cost structures. Typically, live support option costsmore, while the automated option may cost less and the self-supportoption may cost the least. Embodiments of the present invention providevarious flexible options for a client and/or a customer to choose one ormore of the options that fit their budget or other considerations. Incertain situations, a client may prefer some offline or delayed supportservice options based on certain configurations (e.g., types of productsor customers), which may be configured by an administrator associatedwith the client. A client may select a support service option percampaign basis, per project basis, per product basis, and/or percustomer basis. For example, different support service options may beavailable to a customer dependent upon the type of membership of thecustomer with respect to the client. A loyal customer may enjoy moreavailable support service options, while a new customer may only beentitled to limited service options such as the offline or delayedservice options. Furthermore, certain support service options such aslive support option may be a fee-based or subscription-based service. Acustomer may want to avoid the live support as much as possible. Asdescribed above, the available support service options may be displayedon the personal page of a customer.

According to one embodiment, certain knowledgebase from a variety ofinformational sources may be analyzed and compiled to generate articlesdescribing solutions for certain popular problems of certain popularproducts. The articles are then published in a Web publishing forum toallow a customer to browse and search for an answer to the customer'sproblem, such that the customer does not have to initiate a contact withan agent or expert from the support center, which may be apaid-per-service option.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating a system for providingself-support services according to one embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 22, support center 103 includes content extractor orintegrator 2205 to extract knowledge information from a variety ofsources, such as internal KB 212, or other internal databases such asclient database 213, product database 214, and customer database 215 ofFIG. 2, etc. In addition, content extractor 2205 may also extractcontent from external KBs such as client product KB 2207 from clientbackend system 122 and manufacturer product KB 2208 from manufacturerbackend system 123. Furthermore, content extractor 2205 may furtherextract information from community forum KB 121 of online communityforum 120.

The extracted information turns into an article as part of self-supportKB 211 managed by self-support KB manager 2206. Once the article isapproved, it is published in Web publication forum 2203 that can beaccessed by a variety of users such as users 2201-2202. Web publicationforum 2203 may be implemented as part of Web interface 108 of FIG. 1hosted by support center 103. Alternatively, Web publication forum maybe hosted by a client or a third party vendor or partner. In oneembodiment, Web publication forum 2203 includes search interface 2209 toallow a user to search articles within self-support KB 211. In addition,according to one embodiment, some articles may include or be associatedwith one-touch button 2210 to allow a reader to initiate a contact withan agent of support center to further discuss the corresponding article.In one embodiment, when one-touch button 2210 is activated, a voice call(e.g., VoIP) or a Web chat session (e.g., text, audio, or video chat)may be established with an agent. In addition, proper informationassociated with the current section of the article (e.g., as part oftouch plan) may be transmitted to the agent to allow the agent to focuson the content of the current section.

That is, according to one embodiment, a self-support option may beinitially presented to the customer to allow the customer to browse andsearch for a solution to its problem. If the customer is not satisfiedwith the self-support articles, the customer has an option to contact alive agent for further support. However, if the customer looks and findsa solution from the self-support knowledgebase, the contact with a liveagent can be avoided, which in turn reduces the cost of the supportservices. The same described above are to be supported or provided via acommunity forum, an agent support desktop or a user via the client website, etc. The diagram expands more than the text here.

FIG. 23 is a state diagram illustrating a process for publishing contentfor self-support according to one embodiment of the invention. Referringto FIG. 23, content 2301 associated with a particular product and/orsimilar or related products is extracted by content extractor 2302 fromvarious sources as raw material. The extracted material is in“imported”state 2303. The content is then integrated or incorporatedinto a single article by an integrating agent 2308, which transitionsthe article into “draft” state 2304. The article may be edited by editor2309 and submitted for approval (e.g., “submitted” state 2305). Thesubmitted article is then approved by any number of approval agent(s).An article can be processed based on multiple approval levels (e.g.,SME, manager, department lead, legal, etc.), which may be configured bya set of one or more rules. The article may be edited back and forth inseveral cycles until it has been approved during which an article may betransitioned between “submitted” state and “draft” state. For example,an approval agent(s) makes sure that the article does not disclose anyconfidential information of a client or manufacturer. Once the articlehas been approved by approval agent(s) 2310, the state of the article istransitioned to an “approved” state and becomes publication 2307 in theself-support KB.

In one embodiment, the editor is responsible to ensure informationdiscussed in the article is technically accurate, while an approvalagent is responsible for any other safeguards such as legalconsiderations, etc. When an article is in a state other than the“approved” state, the article is only exposed or visible to internalpersonnel such as extractor 2302, integrator 2308, editor 2309, andapproval agent(s) 2310. These personnel may be different people and somepeople may handle multiple stages. An access control mechanism may beemployed to set up proper attributes of a file associated with thearticle based on the states of the article, such that the file may beproperly available or visible to proper personnel during differentstages of the processes. For example, a community forum thread which wasasked and answered by one or more people is very difficult to digest ina very long thread (e.g., many messages from many people). This threadwould be flagged as answered by the original question author. Onceflagged the support system extractor would extract the thread to betransformed by and editor or SME (subject matter expert) into an easy toread and understandable self-service article or publication. Most peoplewould not have the patients to steps through a long thread of messagesto find that single answer; they would abandon their search and make asupport call. Once this information is published it then can beleveraged back within the community via search, within a web site forself service, via an agent desktop supporting new agents, etc.

FIG. 24 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingself-support services according to one embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 24, at block 2401, content is extracted from one ormore informational sources (e.g., knowledge or some other data sources),where the content is related to a particular issue of a particularproduct, which is provided by a client of a support center. At block2402, the content extracted from multiple informational sources isconsolidated into a draft of an article that provides one or moresolutions to the issue. All content is reviewed for duplication beforebeing sent to an editor (e.g., SME) for authoring. At block 2403, thedraft is further edited to satisfy technical requirements of thesolutions. At block 2404, the article is approved by an approvalagent(s) in view of other requirements (e.g., legal requirements) of thesolutions. At block 2405, the article is published in an onlinepublishing forum to allow a customer to self-support a similar orrelated problem of a similar or related product, without having tocontact an agent of the support center.

FIG. 25 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingself-support services according to another embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 25, at block 2501, a request is received for supportof a product, where the request is received from a one-touch applicationinstalled on a mobile device of a customer or alternatively, from a Website or community forum, etc. In response to the request, at block 2502,the product is identified and publications associated with the productare also identified. The product and the customer may be identifiedusing the techniques described above. At block 2503, in addition to alist of communication channels that are available to the customerpresented to the customer via a personal page as described above, aself-support option is also presented to the customer to access thepublications that may contain a solution to the problem. For example, alink specifically linked to a section of the publication forum that isrelated to the corresponding registered product may be presented to thecustomer. The link may be identified based on the product and/or vendorinformation received from the one-touch application, without requiringthe customer to specifically provide detailed product information.Alternatively, a customer may use a search interface on the publicationforum to conduct a search for its product. If at block 2504 the customerchooses to contact an agent, the customer can select one of theavailable communication channels to contact an agent at block 2507.Otherwise, at block 2505, the customer can access the presentedpublished article(s) attempting to find a solution. In one embodiment,the published article may be associated with a one-touch button that ifthe customer is not satisfied with the solution, the customer canactivate the one-touch button at block 2506 to contact an agent ifallowed based on channel business rules set by the client.

Embodiments of Cross-Vendor Supports

As described above, an embodiment of a support center can providesupport services for many customers on many products or servicesprovided by many clients substantially concurrently. Some of the clientsmay be business competitors and their products may be competing productsin the market. There may be a tremendous amount of confidential productinformation which can be revealed from the support history orknowledgebase of the products. Therefore, a conventional support centerhas to separate different agents supporting different clients fromaccessing other client's product information, by setting up a physicalor logical wall. However, in some situations, a problem may be relatedto multiple products and sometimes these products may be provided bydifferent clients. For example, a problem may be related to an externalstorage device interfaced with a laptop, where the storage device andthe laptop may be provided by different clients. Typically, an agentsupporting one of the clients may not have sufficient knowledge to solvethe problem without getting help from the knowledge of the other client.

According to one embodiment, certain knowledge information acrossdifferent clients is configured to be shared among agents supportingdifferent products of different clients without disclosing theconfidential information of the clients. The common or general knowledgeinformation of a particular technology or technical area can beconfigured or flagged to be shared for some or all products of some orall clients. Certain client specific knowledge information can also beconfigured or flagged to be shared dependent upon client's preferences,which can be configured by an administrator associated with the client.Knowledge information can be configured to be shared per campaign basis,or per project basis, etc. As a result, an agent can access relatedknowledge information of related products to provide the best possiblesupport services to a customer with less risk of disclosing confidentialinformation.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram illustrating a system for providingcross-vendor support services according to one embodiment of theinvention. Referring to FIG. 26, in response to a request for supportservices of products, touch plan engine 202 is configured to create atouch plan for each of the support cases, each being identified by aunique case ID generated by a case management module described above. Inthis example, touch plan engine 202 creates touch plan 2604 for a firstproduct and touch plan 2605 for a second product. A touch plan includesor references all the necessary information concerning the correspondingcustomer, product, client, and customer's support history, etc. Whentouch plans 2604-2605 are transmitted to agent desktops 2606-2607,respectively, agents 2608-2609 can access information from a variety ofinformational sources (in this example, KB 2603, which may collectivelyrepresent any of the KBs described above), based on the associated touchplans. An agent desktop is configured to manage the interaction flow byproviding tools, information, and scripting to an agent to ensure thateach customer interaction is handled professionally and expeditiously.

In one embodiment, information stored in KB 2603 may be configured orflagged to be available for certain product support cases and some ofthe information may be shared among multiple products and/or multipleclients. An administrator can configure the KB 2603 regarding which partof KB 2603 can be shared and which part of KB 2603 can only be utilizedfor a specific product of a specific client. Such configurations may bedetermined based on client KB configuration profiles 2611-2612. Each ofthe client KB configuration profiles 2611-2612 includes informationindicating what information can be shared and what information cannot beshared with another client. Based on the client KB configurationprofiles 2611-2612, the files of KB 2603 may be managed in anappropriate way to be utilized by different agents 2608-2609 forsupporting different products of different clients.

For example, a support interaction comes in via client 1 (e.g., atelecom provider) about connecting their phone to a computer for thepurpose of transferring photos and music. They are requesting support onhow to resolve a connection issue with this transfer. The problem inthis example may be that of a driver problem in the computers operatingsystem and is beyond the expertise of the telecom agent to support andinstructs the customer to call the computer manufacturer to resolve theproblem. The call then comes in via client 1 of the computermanufacturer with the same problem. The agent identifies it is not acomputer problem but something at the OS layer and escalates to anengineer to resolve. The receiving engineer (e.g., a high paidindividual) helps to resolve the problem and posts an article (followingproper procedures) within the support self-service knowledge base. Thearticle via analysis is determined to cover several client verticals andis posted as general knowledge. Now a new customer comes along anddepending on the channel they take they can be supported by: a) viamobile or web based self-service knowledge article that can walk thecustomer through their problem; b) via a telecom agent armed with theknowledge article; c) via a computer manufacturer agent armed with theknowledge article; and d) via a community forum search where the articleis made available. In any case the single article is made availablethrough all channels. If this had been an issue specific to a port onthe phone, the article may not be made available to anyone other thanthe telecom agent.

FIG. 27 is a block diagram illustrating knowledgebase architecture forcross-vendor support according to one embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 27, KB information may be categorized in at leastthree tiers 2701-2703. The first tier 2701 contains client specific KBinformation that is limited to a particular client. The second tier 2702contains KB information that can be shared by multiple clients within aparticular product or technology/service area. The third tier 2703contains KB information that is common to all technology/service areas.For example, KB data 2704 can be shared by all agents handling clients2708-2717. KB data 2705 can be shared by agents handling clients2708-2710; KB data 2706 can be shared by agents handling clients2711-2713; and KB data 2707 can be shared by agents handling clients2714-2716. KB data 2708-2717 can only be utilized the correspondingagent handling that particular client.

According to one embodiment, an article or file of KB data can beassociated with different programs (e.g., projects) of a client. Anarticle can also be associated with multiple programs of multipleclients. FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating associations ofclients, programs, and articles for support services according to oneembodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 28, there are two productcategories 2801 and 2802 in this example. Clients 2803-2804 areassociated with product category 2801 while clients 2805-2806 areassociated with product category 2802. There are three support programs2807-2809 currently provided by the support center for client 2803 inproduct category 2801. There are three programs 2810-2812 currentlyassociated with client 2804 in product category 2801. There is oneprogram 2813 associated with client 2805 and one program 2814 associatedwith client 2806 under product category 2802.

In one embodiment, each of articles 2815-2823 in the knowledgebase istagged with one or more keywords representing certain terms (taxonomy's)that are typically used in the industry related to the correspondingproduct category. In online computer systems terminology, a tag is anon-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information(such as an Internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). Thiskind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found againby browsing or searching. Tags are generally chosen informally andpersonally by the item's creator or by its viewer, depending on thesystem. Labeling and tagging are carried out to perform functions suchas aiding in classification, marking ownership, noting boundaries, andindicating online identity. They may take the form of words, images, orother identifying marks.

In one embodiment, a tag can be used to associate an article with aparticular product category and/or product. The tags may be defined byan administrator or engineer of the support center or the clients (inview of security considerations). The list of product categories may bedefined as standard categories in the support industry and managed bythe support center. The categories may be linked to the articles (e.g.,via tags) and utilized in a search. A category pool may include, but isnot limited to, hardware, webcam, memory, video display, keyboard, diskdrive, input device, universal serial bus (USB), and Bluetooth, etc. Alist of tags may be defined by a client and thus, each client may have adifferent pool of tags. The tags may be managed by the support centerand/or the client.

Referring back to FIG. 28, in this example, article 2815 has been taggedand associated with program 2807. Article 2816 has been tagged andassociated with programs 2808-2809. Article 2818 has been tagged andassociated with different programs 2809-2810 of different clients2803-2804. Thus, article 2818 is considered as a cross-vendor articlethat may be part of tier 2702 of FIG. 27. Article 2822 has been taggedand associated with different programs 2812-2813 of different clients2804-2805 in different product categories 2801-2802. Thus, article 2822is considered as general knowledge in tier 2703 of FIG. 27. Article 2820has not been associated with any program, which means that article 2820has not been tagged with a keyword related to any program. When an agentattempts to search a solution from a KB, the agent may search (e.g.,from agent desktop) for a tag as a search term that is closely relatedto the product in question. A list of articles may be returned that havebeen tagged by the tag. As a result, the information stored in a KB canbe shared across different products of different clients in differentproduct categories for better support services and better use of thecontent thus having very little to no duplicates of information acrossthe system as a whole. The access control of the articles may beenforced based on tags that are associated with the product categories,which may be used to control whether a particular article is availableor visible to an agent.

Referring back to FIG. 26, in one embodiment, access control module 2602is configured to control the access of information stored in KB 2603 byagents 2608-2609 based on the information provided by touch plans2604-2605. In this example, it is assumed that KB segment 2611 can onlybe utilized by agent 2608 for supporting the first product of a firstclient, while KB segment 2612 can only be utilized by agent 2609 forsupporting the second product of a second client. However, based on theKB configurations from client KB configuration profiles 2611-2612, KBsegment 2610 may be shared by agents 2608-2609 in supporting bothproducts of both clients. In one embodiment, access control module 2602may enable KB segments 2611 and 2610 to be available to agent 2608, andenable KB segments 2612 and 2610 to be available to agent 2609.

In one embodiment, KB segment 2611 may be stored in a particular storageor a network subnet that agent 2609 cannot access, while allowing agent2608 to access the information. Similarly, KB segment 2612 may be storedin another storage or network subnet that agent 2608 is not entitled toaccess, while allowing agent 2609 to access the information. KB segment2610 may be stored in a storage or network subnet that both agents2608-2609 can access. As a result, confidential information of KBsegment 2611 is not exposed to agent 2609, and confidential informationof KB segment 2612 is not exposed to agent 2608.

FIG. 29 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providingcross-vendor supports according to one embodiment of the invention. Forexample, method 2900 may be performed by the system as shown in FIG. 26.Referring to FIG. 29, at block 2901, a set of tags and productcategories is defined to share certain knowledgebase informationconcerning products using components from multiple vendors or clients.At block 2902, a request is received from supporting a product havingcomponents provided by a first vendor and a second vendor, respectively.At block 2903, documents are identified in the knowledgebase that havebeen associated or tagged with the product and the first and secondvendors. At block 2904, at least a portion of the documents is enabledto be accessible by a single agent based on the tags defined by thefirst and second vendors. At block 2905, the agent is allowed to accessthe at least a portion of the documents.

Example of Use Case: Mobile Phone Support via Web, Chat, and Email

The embodiments described above can be applied to a variety of supportapplications or situations. In this example, the product being supportedis a mobile phone, where a wireless carrier and/or phone manufacturer isa client of the support center. In this example it is assumed a cloudbased system (e.g., systems as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) is setup andavailable for customer projects. The cloud based system is amulti-tenant system to support many clients and projects, and can bescaled to support any client/project volume. The cloud based system ismonitored and managed by a staff of technologists in various disciplines(e.g., administrators, agents, and/or experts). It is assumed that theclient has established and selected all communication channels and rulesfor support and defined all touch plans and business processes (e.g.,preferred communication channels, client and product databases,integrated client processing methods, available shared knowledgebase,etc., which may be done by a client integration system of the supportcenter).

It is also assumed that the customer has already registered with thesystem. For example, the customer may have registered and created a useraccount in the support center and registered a mobile device bydownloading and installing a one-touch application associated with theclient. The customer may have also registered the product or productswith the system by scanning a machine-readable code of the product usinga scanner or camera of a mobile device and sending the scannedinformation to the support center via the service API, without having tospecifically provide product information.

In this example an existing customer needs support and follows the onetouch support process, and the customer is defaulted to a chat channelto resolve the problem. The client establishes when and where a onetouch button for customer service/support via their customer Web sitebased is offered via specific business rules (i.e. customer value,shopping cart, type of service, propensity to buy, etc.). A returningcustomer visits the client's web site and logs into the site. Thecustomer requests a service/support via the one touch button, which inturn communicates with the service API of the support center. Inresponse, the system identifies the customer and/or client, creates acase (e.g., unique case ID uniquely identifying the current supportsession) and collects user data. The system collects initial customerinformation and updates customer account (if necessary). System logs allactivities of the customer to the customer's interaction accounthistory.

In this example, a chat client appears on customer's computer or mobiledevice. The system touch plan is initiated and creates a unique case forthe interaction to track the occurrence and overall interaction, whereupdates are made to the case for every action. The system via a customerchat (live) calls up the chat application. The system receives chatrequest from Customer computer and places it into a project queue wheresome rules may apply. The system locates an availableassociate/specialist (e.g., agent or expert) and routes the customerchat to the associate/specialist. The system also routes the touch planas part of support case context, including all the necessary informationassociated with the customer, client, and the product being supported.For example, the system performs a data dip to find associated customerinformation and interaction history for customer.

The system causes a screen pop to be displayed at theassociate/specialists desktop with the associated customer informationand interaction history. The system touch plan engine creates a customemail (based on an email template defined by the client, which may bepart of the associated client integration system) and sends a casenotification to the customer (e.g., notification channel having beensetup or preferred by the customer) based on initiating theservice/support interaction. The touch plan causes an appropriatecomponent of the system to start logging all transaction steps of manualand/or automated steps/processes with updates visible via dashboard andreporting. The associate/specialist's desktop displays start ofinteraction including all customer data and interaction history.

In this example, the customer requests a replacement phone sincecustomer's phone is damaged. The associate/specialist reviews customercontract and starts a process to sell replacement device to customer.The system touch plan receives an event from the associate/specialistdesktop that they are looking into a phone change/upgrade/replacement onbehalf of the customer. The system touch plan calls an “equipmentreview” business process based on the phone replacement request andcustomer data, completes successfully, and presents a result to theassociate/specialist. In addition, the associate/specialist is promptedvia desktop with an upsell option to provide to the customer with aSmartphone equal to, or better in price than the replacement phone. Theassociate/specialist presents the upsell option to the customer and thecustomer makes a selection.

In response, the system touch plan based on phone selection calls a“contract review” business process based on the Smartphone request,completes successfully, and presents a result to theassociate/specialist. Further, the associate/specialist is prompted viadesktop with another upsell option of an unlimited service plan withmore options for a slight monthly increase. The associate/specialistpresents the upsell option to the customer and the customer makes aselection. It is assumed that the customer agrees to both upselloptions. The associate/specialist submits a new phone order to theclient system. The associate/specialist collects proper paymentinformation and finalizes order in the client system (e.g., viaintegrated or partner service API). The system touch plan then calls apayment authorization business process based on finalized order andreceives purchase confirmation (e.g., from a third party paymentfacility via the integrated or partner service API).

The system touch plan then calls a new equipment order business processbased on phone order and receives order confirmation, and possibly callsa client fulfillment system. The system touch plan measures the responsetime of request and makes customer feedback score results visible viadashboard and reporting. The system touch plan calls a service changebusiness process based on the contract service change. The system touchplan measures the response time of request and makes results visible viadashboard and reporting. The system touch plan (during interaction)creates a custom email and sends the phone order & service changenotification (optional) to the customer based on the customer's order.The associate/specialist completes the interaction with the customer anddisconnects the chat.

The system touch plan however, may remain open. The system touch plan(at the end of interaction) creates a custom email and sends a casecompletion summary notification to the customer based on theinteraction, with a survey. The system touch plan measures customer'sresponse to the survey to rank customer experience determining analteration (escalation, live interaction, etc.) of the touch plan orcontinue on current path, in this example the system determines noalteration is needed. The system touch plan then calls a ship equipmentbusiness process based on the completed order and queues shipment tocustomer. The system touch plan measures response time of request andmakes results visible via dashboard and reporting.

In the event that the customer is a new customer visiting the client'sweb site for the first time, and chooses not to register to create a newaccount, and does not log into the web site, but requestsservice/support, then the client will not be identified and no dataexcept anonymous data will be collected by the system. In the event areturning customer does not log into the web site and requestsservice/support, then the client is not identified, but a case iscreated and data collected.

Example of Use Case: Healthcare Monitoring—Nutrition Network

The embodiments described above can also be applied to healthcaremonitoring of a nutrition network, where a nutritionist is a client ofthe support center. In this example, it is assumed that a client has setup the project in the support center and a patient has installedclient's one-touch application on its mobile device. In addition, thepatient has performed the user registration and device registration withthe support center. Based on patient's personal profile, the systemknows the location and time zone of the patient. The nutritionist hasset up notification rules in the support system (e.g., as part ofintegrated client rules, database, or profile). In this project orservice, the patient is supposedly keeping a daily diary (e.g., log) ofintakes of food to be monitored by a nutritionist for medical or fitnesspurposes.

Normally, the patient runs the one-touch application from its mobiledevice and opens its daily diary. The patient needs to capture a meal byselecting the appropriate day then captures an image of the meal using acamera of the mobile device. The patient is prompted by the applicationto specify a type of meal (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner, or others).In this example, the patient specifies the type of meal as breakfast.The patient is then prompted by the application to enter a descriptionof the meal (e.g., type of food, condiments, etc.). In this example, thepatient may enter: 1) 2 eggs over medium; 2) a slice of toast with nobutter; and 3) 1 cup of coffee with light sugar. The patient is promptedby the application to enter a time the meal was consumed. The patientthen saves the diary entry and receives a confirmation that the entrywas saved. The patient on a daily basis captures its weight and logs itin its diary. The system receives a notification that the patient hasposted a new diary entry. In response, the system saves the entry andsends a confirmation back to the patient.

The system (e.g., an automated agent) reviews the entered data from thepatient against a library of good and bad food intake identifying anyitems not allowed or not recommended in the patient's diet and updatesthe diary entry. The system analyzes daily weight of the patient andcompares it with the projected goals. The system calculates theassumptive calorie intake and updates the diary entry. The systemcalculates overall goals and trend report for the nutritionist on thepatient. The system creates a daily summary of the patient's activityand emails the daily summary to the nutritionist. When the nutritionistreceives email notification of patient diary entries for the day, thenutritionist can click a link in email and is taken to the patient'sdiary page and goals trend report in the nutrition Web application. Thenutritionist then reviews patient diary entries and goals trend reportand may post comments to the patient in reply of the diary post(s). Thecomments are received by the patient's application on the mobile device.

When there is a need to meet the patient in person or over a liveconference, the nutritionist can create a calendar entry based on theavailability of the patient (e.g., presence information) and submit thecalendar entry to the system. The patient receives notification viatheir application of a scheduled meeting with the nutritionist and meetswith the nutritionist accordingly. During the meeting, the nutritionistcan validate all of the data according to the plan.

In the event that the patient needs to modify or update the daily diaryentry, the patient can also do that via its one-touch application fromits mobile device. For example, if the patient realizes that somethingwas left out on one of the meals for the day, the patient can add thatto the entry via the one-touch application. The system receives thenotification that the patient has posted an updated diary entry. Inresponse, the system saves the update, replies a confirmation to thepatient, and updates the log file of the patient for tracking andauditing purposes. In addition, the system may have to reanalyze thefood intake, recalculate calorie intake, and reassess the goal and trendreport based on the patient's update.

Subsequently, the system reviews the data entered from the patientagainst a library of good and bad food intake identifying any items notallowed or not recommended in the Patients diet and updates the diaryentry based on the assumptive calorie intake and generating a trendreport for the nutritionist. The report is then transmitted to thenutritionist and the patient is informed. Based on the patient's profileand/or nutritionist's setting, the system may create a daily summary ofthe patient's activity and emails the summary to the nutritionist.

In the event that the nutritionist does not receive the summary orreport, the nutritionist can notify the system. For example, thenutritionist can select one of the communication channels such as a chatfunction on its application (e.g., Web application) to contact (e.g.,via a service API) a support specialist (e.g., agent of the supportcenter) for assistance. A support specialist enters the chat, opens acase (e.g., tracked by a unique case ID), and collects the probleminformation from the nutritionist. The support specialist then fixes theproblem for the nutritionist.

In the event that the system identifies that something goes wrong basedon the analysis of patient's diary entries, the nutritionist may receivean early notification from the support system. For example, thenutritionist receives an email notification of patient's diary entriesearly due to an item identified from the NOT allowed diet foods. Thenutritionist clicks a link in the email and is taken to the patient'sdiary page and goals trend report in their nutrition Web application.The nutritionist reviews patient's diary entries and goals trend report.The nutritionist can select a click-to-call button from the Webapplication to contact the patient, discuss the problem with thepatient, and establish a corrective action.

In some situations, the system may identify some items in the patient'sdiary report that are not in accordance with the plan based on theanalysis. For example, the system reviews the data entered from thepatient against a library of good and bad food intake to identify anyitems that are not allowed or not recommended in the patient's diet. Thesystem may identify an exception to report based on an item entered bythe patient, where this item was identified from the NOT allowed dietfoods. The system calculates the assumptive calorie intake and updatesthe diary entry. The system further calculates overall goals and trendreport for nutritionist on the patient, updates a daily summary of thepatient's activity, and emails the summary to the nutritionistimmediately.

In response, the nutritionist can provide a corrective intervention oraction based on patient's daily goals and trend. The nutritionist afterdiscussing the problem with the patient and setting corrective action,can sets a flag on the patient's diary for immediate notification for aperiod of time (e.g., number of meals or number of days) to monitorpatient's activities closely.

Example of Use Case: Payment Support

The embodiments described above can also be applied to payment supportfor certain products or services. For example, the techniques describedabove can be applied to payment support of hotel services, where thehotel service provider is a client of the support center. In thisexample, it is assumed that a client supports customer check-in viamagnetic strip card (loyalty/credit card/other). The client supportscustomer check-in via a near field communications (NFC) enabled device.A client project has already been set up and configured on the supportcenter. A customer already has a digital wallet client application(e.g., one-touch application) loaded on its mobile device. The customerhas already registered with a client site setting up profile,preferences, payment specifics and digital wallet ID, etc. The customerhas set up a reservation with quick check-in based on digital wallet ID.

When the customer arrives at the hotel and approaches quick check-in ata kiosk near the front desk, the customer uses NFC enabled device tocheck in. The customer activates scan of NFC device for check in andscan is accepted. The system communicatively coupled to the kioskreceives an NFC request and information from customer device. The systempulls up customer folio and presents to the customer at the kiosk forreview. The customer is asked to review and confirm reservationspecifics and is noted how all charges are to be handled. In addition,the system determines from customer history etc., an upsell offeravailable and presents the offer to customer. For example, the customeris presented with an upsell for a larger room if paid for using itsdigital wallet ID during the stay. If the customer accepts, the systemapplies changes to room selection, rate and assigns room for guest.Thereafter, the system authorizes Customer digital wallet for access.

Further, the system determines from customer history etc., a couponavailable and presents the coupon or coupons to the customer and appliescoupon specifics to digital wallet. The customer is presented withloyalty discount opportunities available at the restaurant and bar ifpaid for using its digital wallet ID during the stay. The customer ispresented with a welcome message and information about activitiesavailable during the stay. The system may further determine activitiesthe customer would be interested in based on the customer profile andpresent the same to the customer. Once the check-in process is done, thecustomer heads to the hotel room and uses NFC device instead of guestroom card to access the room. The system matches NFC information tocustomer list to determine access and the access is granted.

In another scenario, if the kiosk does not accept the check-in scanning(e.g., NFC device fails), the system detects the problem and prompts thecustomer to use their credit card instead. Meanwhile, the kiosk sends anerror event to the support system, where the support system logs thecustomer event it has received during the NFC scan error (possiblymultiple times). In response to the error event, the support centercreates a unique case ID and a touch plan tracked by the case ID asdescribed above.

The touch plan engine forwards the touch plan to an available supportspecialist with all the necessary data (e.g., client, product, history,etc.) Meanwhile, the customer pulls out a credit card and swipes (backupto NFC) and the customer is prompted with a click-to-call option toresolve the issue. If the customer selects click-to-call option from thekiosk, the customer is routed to the available support associatecurrently working issue via VoIP on the Kiosk. The support specialistreceives the call, updates case, reviews, and resolves the problem ifpossible during call. The customer is asked to perform a test scan oftheir NFC device, which works successfully. The support specialistupdates case and closes the touch plan, and sends a summary ofinteraction to customer via an email.

Example of Use Case: Ticketing Support

The embodiments described above can also be applied to ticketing supportin a concert environment, where the tickets are provided by a client ofthe support center. In this example, it is assumed that the clientalready supports customer check in via near-field chip (NFC) enableddevices or barcode enabled devices. A client project has already beenset up and configured in the support center (e.g., client profile orrules). A customer has a mobile device as a digital wallet with a clientapplication (e.g., one-touch application) loaded on the mobile device.The customer has already registered with a client site setting upprofile, preferences, payment specifics and digital wallet ID, etc.

It is also assumed that the customer has purchased ticket(s) for aconcert via a mobile application or Web (e.g., Ticketmaster.com,Cheaptickets.com, Livenation.com, Gotickets.com, Ticketsnow.com, etc.)and the system emails the customer the ticket(s) upon completion of thepurchase (e.g., barcode). The customer receives emailed tickets via itsmobile device (or PC) to be used at a venue ticket scanner. The systemsends the customer a notification to use the ticketed line once at thetheatre (based on rules, history, perk). The customer receives a noticeto use the ticketed line at the venue (perk for pre-purchase) andarrives at the venue with the purchased ticket to see a concert.

The customer enters the ticketed line to scan ticket(s) at a kiosk (putsthem ahead of people just making ticket purchase). The customer scansticket(s) and is confirmed for the concert, and receives a coupon (fromthe system, via their mobile) for a discount off their concessionpurchase. The customer proceeds to concession for other goods (e.g.,drinks or snacks) using its mobile wallet as well as the coupon receivedat ticket check-in to purchase concession items. The system accepts thepurchase from the customer's mobile wallet and applies the discountprovided at check-in. The consumer proceeds to the venue hall to watchthe concert. Further, the customer receives notification (uponcompletion of concert) of an upcoming concert meeting theirpreconfigured/profile music preferences and elects to pre-order ticketsand makes purchase via mobile application/wallet. The system acceptsfunds and emails new ticket(s) for concert and the customer leaves thevenue.

In another scenario, the customer never receives the ticket(s) purchasedand calls support line from its mobile device to locate status oftickets while heading to the concert venue. The system received the calland forwards to a specialist support queue. A support specialistreceives the call and is communication with the customer. The customerdescribes problem and the support specialist identifies a problem andcorrects the problem (e.g., email in profile incorrect, changes andresubmits). In this example, the system updates email address andresends tickets to customers email address.

At the entrance of the concert, the customer tries to scan the ticket inthe email but the system will not accept. The system identifies thatcustomer's scan is not working and prompts the customer at its mobiledevice to speak with a specialist. The customer clicks a call button toaccept and the system places the call to customer then connects to asupport specialist. The customer describes problem and the supportspecialist identifies and corrects the problem (e.g., scanner on kioskor NFC device is bad). The support specialist checks the customer in andsends a confirmation receipt to the customer.

Example of Use Case: Nook Support on Google ePub

The embodiments described above can also be applied to support an eBookon an eBook reader provided by a client of the support center. In thisexample, a customer has purchased an eBook from a vendor such as anePub™ from Google®, where an ePub is an Adobe® Adept Digital RightsManagement (DRM) document for Google viewer. An ePub must have DRMtransferred (converted) from Google to Nook™ (e.g., an eBook format fromBarnes & Noble® Adept DRM). It is assumed that the customer has alreadyperformed user and product registration and made changes to theirprofile for support using some of the techniques described above, suchas, for example, one-touch registration processes set forth above.

In this example, the customer has purchased an ePub from Google andwould like to view on a Nook reader. However, the customer has troubletrying to convert document for viewing on a Nook device. For example,the customer places an ePub file on the Nook device and cannot read. Thecustomer goes to Nook support Web site (e.g., client hosted supportsite) and searches knowledgebase for support articles, which may beprepared and published by the support center using some of theself-support techniques described above. The customer is presented witha document on how to convert the Google Adept DRM to Nook Adept DRM,such that the document can be read on its Nook device. The customer isinstructed to go to the Adobe Web site (link provided within thedocument) to download and install Adobe Digital Editions fortransferring rights to the nook device. The customer opens DigitalEditions and is asked to plug in the Nook device and the DigitalEditions mounts the Nook device. The customer is instructed to drag ePubfrom its computer to the Nook device and the conversion is performed.The customer opens the eBook on the Nook device to verify book can beviewed successfully.

However, in some situations, there may be a problem for the customer toconvert the eBook even after reviewing the self-support articles. Forthe purposes of illustration, it is assumed that the customer searchesthe knowledgebase (e.g., procedure to convert the DRM), does not find anarticle to assist. The customer may go to an online community forum andcannot get help from anyone. The customer is frustrated and enters achat with a support specialist for proper directions to convert. In thisexample, the customer from the forum clicks on a “chat now” button(e.g., one-touch button) to initiate a request for a live session with asupport specialist (e.g., agent or expert). The request may be receivedat the support center via the service API described above.

In response to the request, the support system creates a session case IDthat uniquely identifies the current instant of support case andinitiates a touch plan. The support specialist enters a chat sessionwith the customer and informs the customer that they can perform theentire process for them for a fee. It is assumed that the customeragrees and provides proper billing information. The support specialistcaptures billing information and submits order for support interaction,for example, using a third party billing system via an integrated orpartner service API. The support specialist asks the customer to plugthe Nook into the computer, instructs the customer to navigate to a linkand enter a code for a remote computer control session.

The support specialist goes to the Adobe's Web site, downloads andinstalls Adobe Digital Editions for transferring rights to the nook ontothe customer's computer. The support specialist opens the DigitalEditions and the Digital Editions mounts the Nook device. The supportspecialist drags the ePub file from the computer to Nook device andconversion is performed. The support specialist asks the customer (viachat) to open the eBook on the Nook device to verify that the eBook canbe viewed. The customer confirms that the eBook can be read and thesupport specialist ends remote control of the customer's computer. Thesupport specialist submits final case information and ends the sessionwith the customer.

Examples of Use Case: Travels

The embodiments described above can also be applied to support travelsituations such as a vacation trip. In this situation, a customer of asupport center may be a traveler who is presented with a multitude ofpotential issues or mishaps while executing on a travel itinerary setupby the traveler or someone else. In the case of simple events thetraveler can be overcome easily but when more complex events happen(e.g., cascading events) the traveler is left in a bad state and cannotbe helped by any one vendor whom they have purchased assets for travelfrom.

The example set forth below is in reality a worst case scenario for aconsumer and demonstrates the ramifications (cascading events or dominoeffect) of a single issue effecting reservations and events downstream.In this example, it is assumed that a traveler for a given trip willneed to schedule the following:

-   -   A ride to the airport    -   A flight to Miami    -   Some where to stay prior to the cruise    -   A booking for a cruise to the Bahamas    -   A car to do some sightseeing in Miami after the cruise    -   A return flight home from Miami    -   A shuttle ride from the airport to home

The customer embarks on their travel leaving on the shuttle to theairport. While in transit to the airport the shuttle encounters anaccident on the highway. Due to the accident the shuttle arrives late tothe airport and the customer misses its flight to Miami. Typically, thecustomer goes to the airline and is re-ticketed for the next flight out.The customer's baggage must be located to forward to the new flight. Thecustomer travels on the flight to Miami, arrives and takes a shuttle tothe hotel. Since its flight was late the customer arrives at the hotellate. Not having flagged the reservation with a late check in, theirroom was given to someone else. They are not able to get a new room atthe same hotel so they have to move to a motel that has an open room.They get to their room and turn in for the night. The next day theyembark on their cruise.

Once they return from the cruise the customer who will be staying acouple days in Miami calls the rental car company to find that thereservation for a mid-size car made weeks ago has been lost and all thatis available is a sub-compact. The customer takes the car and travels totheir new hotel room during their Miami stay and checks in. They then gosightseeing in Miami in their sub compact. Once their sightseeingexcursion is over they embark for the airport for their trip home. Uponarriving at the airport they find that their flight is delayed due topoor weather, they are rebooked onto a later flight and depart for home.Once at their home airport they pick up their baggage and head to theshuttle finding that they have missed it due to the flight delay. Theymust wait for two hours for the next shuttle. Once the shuttle arrivesthey head for home.

The above hassles can be avoided or reduced if the traveler becomes acustomer of the support center and takes advantage of support servicesfrom the support center. Note that the above event services may beprovided by multiple different vendors or service providers. Forexample, the ride to and back from the airport may be provided by thesame or different taxi, shuttle bus, or car rental companies. The hotelstays prior to and after the cruise may be provided by the same ordifferent hotels or hotel chains. The flights to and back from Miami maybe provided by the same or different airline companies. It would be anightmare for the customer to rearrange the schedule for some of theevents with individual vendors or service providers.

The customer may purchase a travel package from a client of the supportcenter such as Expedia and has registered with the support center. Asdescribed above, the customer may register with the support center bysending a copy of electronic receipt(s), itinerary or eTicket(s), or atransaction ID of the purchase to the support center from a one-touchapplication from its mobile device, without having to provide all thenecessary information concerning all of the reservations from variousvendors. The support center can compile all of the necessary informationfrom various sources (e.g., from vendors via integrated or partnerAPIs).

Once the travel package has been registered with the support center, atouch plan is created specifically tailored to the travel schedule. Inaddition, relationships amongst the activities or events are identifiedor determined. All activities and events occurring from each activityare monitored and managed accordingly by the support center. That is,the support center has all the tools and “connections” with at leastsome of the vendors or service providers (e.g., via integrated orpartner APIs) to rearrange the schedule on behalf of the customer and/orclient, without requiring the customer to individually contact thevendors or service providers.

In this example, on the way to Miami, the system may receive real-timetraffic information from a traffic report service provider, for example,via an integrated or partner service API. Based on the touch plan, thesystem can notify (e.g., via the driver of the shuttle of the situationon the highway and provide an alternate route to the airport to possiblyget the consumer there in time for their flight.

If the shuttle still arrives late at the airport, the system canautomatically rebook the customer for a different flight (even on analternate airline) and notify the customer of the change as well asupdating and sending new eTickets to customer's mobile device. Inaddition, having rebooked the flight the system tracks the reroute ofthe consumer's baggage to ensure they end up on the proper flight.Further, the consumer's hotel reservations are updated by the system fora late check-in such that the room is not assigned to someone else. Allthese operations are proactively performed by the support center withouthaving the customer to initiate the rearrangement.

Similarly, on the way back from Miami, the system manages theconfirmation of the rental car. If the rental car is not available, thesystem can book a car at another car rental agency and alerts theconsumer on their mobile device. Due to the poor weather experienced theairport has delayed flights. The system monitoring the flight for theconsumer automatically rebooks the flight for the next available, alertsthe consumer, and sends the customer a new eTicket for rebooked flight.The shuttle driver is alerted that a consumer and family are arrivingfrom Miami and meets them at baggage claim for their ride home.

Example of Data Processing System

FIG. 30 is a block diagram of a data processing system, which may beused with one embodiment of the invention. For example, the system 3000may be used as part of a client or server system as shown in FIG. 1.Note that while FIG. 30 illustrates various components of a computersystem, it is not intended to represent any particular architecture ormanner of interconnecting the components; as such details are notgermane to the present invention. It will also be appreciated thatnetwork computers, handheld computers, cell phones and other dataprocessing systems which have fewer components or perhaps morecomponents may also be used with the present invention. The computersystem of FIG. 30 may, for example, be an Apple Macintosh computer orMacBook, an IBM compatible PC, or a computer server.

As shown in FIG. 30, the computer system 3000, which is a form of a dataprocessing system, includes a bus or interconnect 3002 which is coupledto one or more microprocessors 3003 and a ROM 3007, a volatile RAM 3005,and a non-volatile memory 3006. The microprocessor 3003 is coupled tocache memory 3004. The bus 3002 interconnects these various componentstogether and also interconnects these components 3003, 3007, 3005, and3006 to a display controller and display device 3008, as well as toinput/output (I/O) devices 3010, which may be mice, keyboards, modems,network interfaces, printers, and other devices which are well-known inthe art.

Typically, the input/output devices 3010 are coupled to the systemthrough input/output controllers 3009. The volatile RAM 3005 istypically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) which requires powercontinuously in order to refresh or maintain the data in the memory. Thenon-volatile memory 3006 is typically a magnetic hard drive, a magneticoptical drive, an optical drive, or a DVD RAM or other type of memorysystem which maintains data even after power is removed from the system.Typically, the non-volatile memory will also be a random access memory,although this is not required.

While FIG. 30 shows that the non-volatile memory is a local devicecoupled directly to the rest of the components in the data processingsystem, the present invention may utilize a non-volatile memory which isremote from the system; such as, a network storage device which iscoupled to the data processing system through a network interface suchas a modem or Ethernet interface. The bus 3002 may include one or morebuses connected to each other through various bridges, controllers,and/or adapters, as is well-known in the art. In one embodiment, the I/Ocontroller 3009 includes a USB (Universal Serial Bus) adapter forcontrolling USB peripherals. Alternatively, I/O controller 3009 mayinclude an IEEE-1394 adapter, also known as FireWire adapter, forcontrolling FireWire devices.

Embodiments of Graphical User Interfaces

FIGS. 31A-31D are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of a one-touch application according to one embodiment of theinvention. For example, the GUIs as shown in FIGS. 31A-31D may beimplemented as part of one-touch application 106 installed on mobiledevice 101 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 31A-31D, the GUI as shown inFIG. 31A is displayed when a user launches the one-touch applicationfrom its mobile device. The one-touch application as shown in FIG. 31Aincludes multiple pages 3106-3114, each of which can be activated anddisplayed by activating (e.g., clicking, tapping, or via a voiceinteractive command) the corresponding graphical representation (e.g.,icon). Before a user can access any one of the pages 3106-3114, the userhas to either create a user account or log into an existing user accountof the support center.

As described above, when the one-touch application is launched, theone-touch application is configured to communicate with the supportcenter via a set of APIs. A user can log in and access its existingaccount via button 3104, which in turn access the existing account atthe support center. If the user does not have an existing account, theuser can also create a new account via button 3102. When button 3102 isactivated, the GUI page as shown in FIG. 31B is displayed, which is apart of account page 3110. In one embodiment, the GUI page as shown inFIG. 31B allows the user to enter any user specific information, suchas, for example, name 3116, email address(es) 3118, phone number(s)3120, address(es) 3122, social site(s) 2124, and other information suchas preferences (not shown), etc. For example, a user can activate socialsite 3124 to specify one or more social sites in which the user has anaccount, such as social sites 3126-3130 as shown in FIG. 31C. Byspecifying social sites 3126-3130, the user gives a consent orpermission to the system to access its information via the correspondingsocial sites (not limited to shown) 3126-3130.

In one embodiment, a user can also specify support communicationpreferences by activating the corresponding preference item (not shown)from the list displayed on the GUI page as shown in FIG. 31B. Apreference setting page as shown in FIG. 31D allows a user to specifyone or more communication channels, such as voice 3132, chat 3134, email3136, and other channels (e.g., video chat, SMS, scheduled call back,etc.). Such communication preferences of the user can be used incombination of communication preferences of a client to determineavailability of communication channels to allow the user to reach anagent of the support center during a subsequent support service asdescribed above. The user can also specify, via setting 3138, whetherthe system can utilize global positioning system (GPS) location servicesto provide geographical location information of the user (e.g., presenceinformation) as part of support services provided to the user. Byenabling GPS location services 3138, the user gives consent orpermission to the system for such a usage for the purpose of privacyconcerns.

FIGS. 32A-32F are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of a one-touch application according to another embodiment ofthe invention. For example, GUI page 3200 of FIGS. 32A-32F can bedisplayed by activating products tab 3106 from GUI pages of FIGS.31A-31D. Referring to FIGS. 32A-32F, GUI 3200 is displayed including alist of one or more products, such as products 3206 and 3208, which areowned and have been registered by the user. GUI page 3200 furtherincludes search tool 3204 to allow a user to search a particularregistered product. From the list of registered products as shown inFIG. 32A, if a particular product has an event or notification pending,a number representing number of events or notifications is alsodisplayed within proximity of the corresponding product. For example,number 3210 indicates that there is at least one pending event ornotification of product 3208.

In one embodiment, GUI page 3200 further includes button 3202 toregister an additional product. When button 3202 is activated, GUI page3218 is displayed as shown in FIG. 32B. GUI page 3218 allows a user toregister a product via variety current of mechanisms as well as futuremechanisms as they are technically made available. A user can register aproduct by scanning a barcode or barcodes of a product via link 3212 orscanning a QR code or codes of a product via link 3214. Alternatively, auser can manually enter product information via link 3216.

For the purpose of illustration, it is assumed that the user wishes toregister a product by scanning a barcode via link 3212. According to oneembodiment, when link 3212 is activated, GUI page 3220 is displayed asshown in FIG. 32C. Referring to FIG. 32C, in this embodiment, a user canscan a barcode using GUI page 3220 to register a product. The user canplace barcode 3228 of the product within scanning window 3226 to obtainproduct ID 3222 and/or serial number 3224 of the product. The scannedinformation is then transmitted from the mobile device to the supportcenter to allow the system to compile the necessary information aboutthe product and/or user. As described above, the system can communicatewith all the parties (e.g., retailer, manufacturer, etc.) via properservice APIs to automatically obtain information such as productinformation, loyalty information, or the like, without userintervention. For certain information that cannot be obtainedautomatically, the user can manually enter the information. The detailedinformation can then be stored in a customer asset store (e.g., assetstore 219 of FIG. 2).

In one embodiment, the product detailed information can be retrievedfrom the support center and displayed on the mobile device as part ofGUI page 3230 as shown in FIG. 32D. Referring to FIG. 32D, the displayedproduct detailed information includes (but not limited to) the productID, serial number, purchase date, and warranty information, etc. Inaddition, GUI page 3230 further includes one or more links 3232-3238 toallow a user to access other information associated with thecorresponding product. In one embodiment, link 3232 allows a user toaccess a notification issued on the product, such as an offer to upgradeor discount, a recall notification, etc. Link 3234 allows a user toaccess the detailed specification of the product. Link 3236 allows auser to access documents such as user manuals of the product. Link 3238allows a user to access an online community (e.g., discussion forum)associated with the product. Note that GUI page 3230 can also beaccessed or displayed by selecting one of the registered products (e.g.,product 3206) from GUI page 3200 of FIG. 32A.

According to one embodiment, GUI page 3230 further includes button 3240to allow a user to obtain one-touch support services from the supportcenter. When button 3240 is activated from GUI page 3230 of FIG. 32D,GUI page 3250 is displayed as shown in FIG. 32E. Within GUI page 3250,according to one embodiment, a list of one or more communicationchannels or mechanisms that are available to a user to contact a supportagent is displayed. In this example, the available communicationchannels include voice 3252, while chat 3254 and email 3256 areunavailable. As described above, the availability of the communicationchannels is determined based on user's preferences and client'spreferences. Note that for purposes of illustration only, voice, chat,and email are utilized examples of communication channels; othercommunication channels such as video chat, SMS, call back, etc., canalso be utilized. Assuming that chat 3254 is available in this example,a user can launch a chat session with an agent of the support center toobtain support services as shown in FIG. 32F.

Similar to product registration, according to one embodiment, a loyaltyor reward card of a client (e.g., retailer) can also be registered withthe support center via the one-touch application. FIGS. 33A-33D arescreenshots representing examples of graphical user interfaces of aone-touch application according to another embodiment of the invention.For example, GUI page 3300 of FIG. 33A can be retrieved and displayed byactivating loyalty tab 3108 from other GUI pages, which lists a list ofregistered loyalty programs of the user. Referring to FIGS. 33A-33D, auser can also search a registered loyalty program using search tool3302. A user can also register an additional loyalty program byactivating button 3304, which displays GUI page 3306 as shown in FIG.33B. From GUI page 3306, the user can register a loyalty program byeither scanning a barcode of a loyalty card via link 3308 or manuallyentering the information via link 3310. If the user wishes register viascanning, the user can activate link 3308, which displays the GUI pageas shown in FIG. 33C. Similar to scanning barcodes of a product, fromthe GUI page of FIG. 33C, a user can register a loyalty program byscanning a barcode of a loyalty card or reward card.

Based on the information obtain from the scanning or from the user,detailed loyalty information can be obtained by the support center fromproper informal sources via proper APIs. The detailed information canalso be retrieved from the system and displayed as GUI page 3320 on themobile device as shown in FIG. 33D. Referring to FIG. 33D, from GUI page3320, a user can access one or more offers (e.g., rewards, discounts,upgrades) from the program via link 3322. The user can also find anearby office via link 3324; access an online community associated withthe program via link 3326; and access the program's Web site via link3328. If the user needs to talk to a live agent concerning thecorresponding loyalty program, the user can activate support button3330, which brings the user to a support GUI page similar those as shownin FIGS. 32E and 32F.

FIGS. 34A-34L are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of a one-touch application according to another embodiment ofthe invention. For example, GUI page 3400 of FIG. 34A can be displayedby activating services tab 3112. Referring to FIGS. 34A-34L, GUI page3400 of FIG. 34A includes (but not limited to) displayed therein a listof services 3402-3418 that can be provided to the user by the supportcenter. In one embodiment, a user can compile a list of items the userwishes to have by activating link 3402, which displays GUI 3420 as shownin FIG. 34B.

Referring to FIG. 34B, from GUI page 3420, a user can search for an itemthat is interesting to the user using search tool 3421. For example, auser can search on the Internet for an item the user wishes for.Alternatively, the user can scan using scanning tool 3422 a barcode orQR code of the wished product. This is useful when a user is shopping ina retail store in that the user can scan the barcode of the product inorder to add the product into its wish list. In one embodiment, for eachof the items listed in the wish list, the user can review other people'scomments about the product by activating button 3424, which brings alist of comments from other users as shown in FIG. 34C. In addition, theuser can also compare the product with another one by activating button3426, which displays comparison GUI page as shown in FIG. 34D. From theGUI page of FIG. 34D, each of the products listed also includesinformation indicating whether the corresponding product is currentlyowned by the user. Further, the user can display detailed comparisoninformation (e.g., side-by-side information) by activating button 3428.Note that the GUI page as shown in FIG. 34C can also be displayed vialink 3404 of FIG. 34A and the GUI page as shown in FIG. 34D can also bedisplayed via link 3406 of FIG. 34A.

Referring now to FIGS. 34E and 34F, a user can also obtain supportservices from the support center to obtain information about accessoriesassociated with a particular product. In one embodiment, GUI page 3430can be displayed via link 3410 of FIG. 34A. GUI page 3430 includes alist of products that have been registered. Each of the listed productsincludes a button to accessorize the corresponding product such asbutton 3432. When the button, in this example, button 3432, isactivated, GUI page 3434 is displayed. In one embodiment, GUI page 3434includes a list of accessories 3436 including retailers from which theaccessories can be purchased (e.g., via link 3414 of FIG. 34A). All ofthe information is obtained and provided by the support center, wherethe support center communicates with each of the retailers via a properAPI to obtain the detailed information as described above, withoutrequiring user's manual efforts.

According to one embodiment, a user can also access self-supportknowledge such as most asked questions via link 3408 of FIG. 34A. Whenlink 3408 is activated, GUI page 3440 of FIG. 34G is displayed. GUI page3440 includes a list of answers to most viewed questions asked by otherusers on the same or similar product. The information may be compiled bythe support center (e.g., self-support modules 2205-2206 of FIG. 22)based on data collected from a variety of informational sources asdescribed above. The list of articles displayed may also be compiledbased on user's profile such as registered products and/or historicalinteraction or purchases. Detailed answers to each of questions such asquestion 3444 can be displayed (in this example as GUI page 3442) viathe corresponding link as shown in FIG. 34H. Referring to FIG. 34H, anarticle concerning detailed answer is displayed on the GUI page. Inaddition, the user can rate the article, which contributes to theoverall rating of the article. Further, based on the article, the systemalso compiles and provides a list of suggested articles that may berelated to the currently displayed article or is the next typicalarticle other users have reviewed in conjunction with the first.

According to one embodiment, for each of the registered products, thesupport center can also provide services to a user to sell the productat a variety of ecommerce platforms. In one embodiment, a user canactivate link 3416 to arrange selling one or more of its registeredproducts. When link 3416 is activated, selling GUI page 3450 isdisplayed as shown in FIG. 34I. GUI page 3450 lists all the productsthat have been registered with the support center. A user can sell anyone of them by activating a sell button of the corresponding product.For example, a user can sell product 3452 by activating sell button3454, which displays GUI page 3460 as a posting helper. From GUI page3460, the user can specify one or more selling platforms or venues tosell the corresponding product. The user can also specify the selling orauction price 3464 and payment method 3466 as shown in FIG. 34K. In oneembodiment, the posting helper provides a user interface to query theuser concerning certain conditions of the product to be sold. Based onthe condition information received from the user, the system canestimate a market price to be sold or auctioned. Such an estimate may begenerated by the system based on the market condition and/or otherusers' transactions on similar products. After the sale has been posted,the selected selling platforms are also displayed on GUI page 3450 asshown in FIG. 34L.

Referring back to FIG. 34I, for some products such as product 3456,based on the available information, the processing logic may determinethat it is time to recycle the product. In one embodiment, when a userattempts selling or disposing a product, a disposal helper may bedisplayed and utilized to collect condition information of the product.Based on the information received from the user and the marketcondition, the disposal helper may suggest whether the product should bedisposed or sold. If the system determines that the product should bedisposed, recycle button 3458 is displayed, which when activated, theprocessing logic is configured to arrange a recycle vendor to pick upand/or dispose the corresponding product. The disposal helper mayfurther provide suggestions to dispose if the user decides to disposeitself. As a result, the user does not have to individually find arecycling vendor to handle the recycle. Note that the disposal GUI canalso be displayed via link 3418 of FIG. 34A. Note that GUIs as shown inFIGS. 31A-31D, 32A-32F, 33A-33D, and 34A-34L are shown and described forthe purposes of illustration only; other formats or layouts may also beapplied herein.

Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presentedin terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations ondata bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the ways used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as those set forth in the claims below, refer to the actionand processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computingdevice, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performingthe operations herein. Such a computer program is stored in anon-transitory computer readable medium. A machine-readable mediumincludes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by amachine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g.,computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readablestorage medium (e.g., read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory(“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flashmemory devices).

The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may beperformed by processing logic that comprises hardware (e.g. circuitry,dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitorycomputer readable medium), or a combination of both. Although theprocesses or methods are described above in terms of some sequentialoperations, it should be appreciated that some of the operationsdescribed may be performed in a different order. Moreover, someoperations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially.

Embodiments of the present invention are not described with reference toany particular programming language. It will be appreciated that avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsof embodiments of the invention as described herein.

In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. Itwill be evident that various modifications may be made thereto withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than arestrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for product supportservices, the method comprising: maintaining, in a client databaseassociated with a server representing a support center, a set of clientrules of a plurality of clients, the set of client rules being obtainedby communicating with a backend system of each of the clients via arespective application programming interface (API) of the respectiveclient, wherein each set of client rules of each client includes one ormore communications channels preferred by the client to communicate withcustomers of the client, wherein the support center provides supportservices for a plurality of products on behalf of the plurality ofclients, and wherein a client is one of a manufacturer, a distributer, aretailer, and a service broker; maintaining, in a user databaseassociated with the server, a plurality of customer profiles havingcustomer information of a plurality of customers who have registeredwith the support center, wherein each customer profile includes acustomer identity of a respective customer and one or more productsacquired by the respective customer from one or more of the clients; inresponse to a request from a mobile application running at a mobiledevice of a customer, transmitting a personalized page to the mobileapplication of the mobile device of the customer, the personalized pageincluding a list of one or more products retrieved from the customerprofile of the customer, wherein each of the one or more products listedin the personalized page is associated with one or more communicationschannels preferred by an associated client, which are retrieved from theclient database; receiving from the mobile application a live supportrequest that is initiated from a selected product of the personalizedpage, the live support request including a selection selecting one ofthe preferred communications channels listed on the personalized page;and establishing a live communication session between the customer and asupport agent of the support center using a selected communicationschannel to enable the support agent to provide live support services tothe customer concerning the selected product.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: maintaining, in a product database associated with aserver, product information concerning a plurality of products providedby the plurality clients, wherein the product information is obtained bycommunicating with the backend system of a respective client via theclient API, the product information including at least one of usermanual and technical manual of the associated product; in response tothe live support request, generating, by a case management module, aunique case identifier (ID) that uniquely identifies the live supportsession; generating, by a touch engine, a touch plan represented by adata structure as a place holder for storing information related to thelive support session, the touch plan being tracked by the unique caseID, wherein the touch plan includes a first link referenced to a firstdatabase entry of the client database that is associated with a clientproviding the selected product, a second link referenced to a seconddatabase entry of the product database that is associated with theselected product, and a third link referenced to a customer profile ofthe customer; and transmitting the touch plan to the support agent, suchthat the support agent can access related product information, relatedclient information, and related customer information from via the first,second, and third links of the touch plan during the live supportsession, without having to individually access the client database,product database, and user database.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: logging, by a logging module executed by a processor of theserver, interaction between the customer and the support agent duringthe live support session; storing the logged interaction in aninteraction history database associated with the server; and providing afourth link in the touch plan referencing to the logged interaction inthe interaction history database, such that the support agent can accessfrom the fourth link of the touch plan interactive history of thecustomer during the live support session.
 4. The method of claim 3,further comprising: determining, by a persuasive engine, a secondproduct or service based on the product information and interactivehistory of the customer; and providing a fifth link in the touch plan tothe second product or service, such that the support agent can proposethe second product or service from the fifth link of the touch plan asan alternative solution to the customer during the live support session.5. The method of claim 2, wherein the touch plan further includesinformation identifying a third product that is purchased by thecustomer from the same client of the selected product.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a set of client rules of a client defines one or moreprocesses to be performed that have been specifically tailored to theclient's needs when providing support services to a customer of theclient.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one product listed inthe personalized page is associated with a link to a publication forum,possibly containing a solution to a problem with the customer concerningthe product, to allow the customer to find a solution to the problemwithout having to initiating the live support session with the supportagent.
 8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium havinginstructions stored therein, which when executed by a computer, causethe computer to perform a method for product support services, themethod comprising: maintaining, in a client database associated with aserver representing a support center, a set of client rules of aplurality of clients, the set of client rules being obtained bycommunicating with a backend system of each of the clients via arespective application programming interface (API) of the respectiveclient, wherein each set of client rules of each client includes one ormore communications channels preferred by the client to communicate withcustomers of the client, wherein the support center provides supportservices for a plurality of products on behalf of the plurality ofclients, and wherein a client is one of a manufacturer, a distributer, aretailer, and a service broker; maintaining, in a user databaseassociated with the server, a plurality of customer profiles havingcustomer information of a plurality of customers who have registeredwith the support center, wherein each customer profile includes acustomer identity of a respective customer and one or more productsacquired by the respective customer from one or more of the clients; inresponse to a request from a mobile application running at a mobiledevice of a customer, transmitting a personalized page to the mobileapplication of the mobile device of the customer, the personalized pageincluding a list of one or more products retrieved from the customerprofile of the customer, wherein each of the one or more products listedin the personalized page is associated with one or more communicationschannels preferred by an associated client, which are retrieved from theclient database; receiving from the mobile application a live supportrequest that is initiated from a selected product of the personalizedpage, the live support request including a selection selecting one ofthe preferred communications channels listed on the personalized page;and establishing a live communication session between the customer and asupport agent of the support center using a selected communicationschannel to enable the support agent to provide live support services tothe customer concerning the selected product.
 9. The medium of claim 8,wherein the method further comprises: maintaining, in a product databaseassociated with a server, product information concerning a plurality ofproducts provided by the plurality clients, wherein the productinformation is obtained by communicating with the backend system of arespective client via the client API, the product information includingat least one of user manual and technical manual of the associatedproduct; in response to the live support request, generating, by a casemanagement module, a unique case identifier (ID) that uniquelyidentifies the live support session; generating, by a touch engine, atouch plan represented by a data structure as a place holder for storinginformation related to the live support session, the touch plan beingtracked by the unique case ID, wherein the touch plan includes a firstlink referenced to a first database entry of the client database that isassociated with a client providing the selected product, a second linkreferenced to a second database entry of the product database that isassociated with the selected product, and a third link referenced to acustomer profile of the customer; and transmitting the touch plan to thesupport agent, such that the support agent can access related productinformation, related client information, and related customerinformation from via the first, second, and third links of the touchplan during the live support session, without having to individuallyaccess the client database, product database, and user database.
 10. Themedium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises: logging, by alogging module executed by a processor of the server, interactionbetween the customer and the support agent during the live supportsession; storing the logged interaction in an interaction historydatabase associated with the server; and providing a fourth link in thetouch plan referencing to the logged interaction in the interactionhistory database, such that the support agent can access from the fourthlink of the touch plan interactive history of the customer during thelive support session.
 11. The medium of claim 10, wherein the methodfurther comprises: determining, by a persuasive engine, a second productor service based on the product information and interactive history ofthe customer; and providing a fifth link in the touch plan to the secondproduct or service, such that the support agent can propose the secondproduct or service from the fifth link of the touch plan as analternative solution to the customer during the live support session.12. The medium of claim 9, wherein the touch plan further includesinformation identifying a third product that is purchased by thecustomer from the same client of the selected product.
 13. The medium ofclaim 8, wherein a set of client rules of a client defines one or moreprocesses to be performed that have been specifically tailored to theclient's needs when providing support services to a customer of theclient.
 14. The medium of claim 8, wherein at least one product listedin the personalized page is associated with a link to a publicationforum, possibly containing a solution to a problem with the customerconcerning the product, to allow the customer to find a solution to theproblem without having to initiating the live support session with thesupport agent.
 15. A system for product support services provided by asupport center, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory coupledto the processor for storing instructions, which when executed from thememory, cause the processor to perform a method, the method includingmaintaining, in a client database associated with a server representinga support center, a set of client rules of a plurality of clients, theset of client rules being obtained by communicating with a backendsystem of each of the clients via a respective application programminginterface (API) of the respective client, wherein each set of clientrules of each client includes one or more communications channelspreferred by the client to communicate with customers of the client,wherein the support center provides support services for a plurality ofproducts on behalf of the plurality of clients, and wherein a client isone of a manufacturer, a distributer, a retailer, and a service broker,maintaining, in a user database associated with the server, a pluralityof customer profiles having customer information of a plurality ofcustomers who have registered with the support center, wherein eachcustomer profile includes a customer identity of a respective customerand one or more products acquired by the respective customer from one ormore of the clients, in response to a request from a mobile applicationrunning at a mobile device of a customer, transmitting a personalizedpage to the mobile application of the mobile device of the customer, thepersonalized page including a list of one or more products retrievedfrom the customer profile of the customer, wherein each of the one ormore products listed in the personalized page is associated with one ormore communications channels preferred by an associated client, whichare retrieved from the client database, receiving from the mobileapplication a live support request that is initiated from a selectedproduct of the personalized page, the live support request including aselection selecting one of the preferred communications channels listedon the personalized page, and establishing a live communication sessionbetween the customer and a support agent of the support center using aselected communications channel to enable the support agent to providelive support services to the customer concerning the selected product.16. The system of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:maintaining, in a product database associated with a server, productinformation concerning a plurality of products provided by the pluralityclients, wherein the product information is obtained by communicatingwith the backend system of a respective client via the client API, theproduct information including at least one of user manual and technicalmanual of the associated product; in response to the live supportrequest, generating, by a case management module, a unique caseidentifier (ID) that uniquely identifies the live support session;generating, by a touch engine, a touch plan represented by a datastructure as a place holder for storing information related to the livesupport session, the touch plan being tracked by the unique case ID,wherein the touch plan includes a first link referenced to a firstdatabase entry of the client database that is associated with a clientproviding the selected product, a second link referenced to a seconddatabase entry of the product database that is associated with theselected product, and a third link referenced to a customer profile ofthe customer; and transmitting the touch plan to the support agent, suchthat the support agent can access related product information, relatedclient information, and related customer information from via the first,second, and third links of the touch plan during the live supportsession, without having to individually access the client database,product database, and user database.
 17. The system of claim 16, whereinthe method further comprises: logging, by a logging module executed by aprocessor of the server, interaction between the customer and thesupport agent during the live support session; storing the loggedinteraction in an interaction history database associated with theserver; and providing a fourth link in the touch plan referencing to thelogged interaction in the interaction history database, such that thesupport agent can access from the fourth link of the touch planinteractive history of the customer during the live support session. 18.The system of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:determining, by a persuasive engine, a second product or service basedon the product information and interactive history of the customer; andproviding a fifth link in the touch plan to the second product orservice, such that the support agent can propose the second product orservice from the fifth link of the touch plan as an alternative solutionto the customer during the live support session.
 19. The system of claim16, wherein the touch plan further includes information identifying athird product that is purchased by the customer from the same client ofthe selected product.
 20. The system of claim 15, wherein a set ofclient rules of a client defines one or more processes to be performedthat have been specifically tailored to the client's needs whenproviding support services to a customer of the client.
 21. The systemof claim 15, wherein at least one product listed in the personalizedpage is associated with a link to a publication forum, possiblycontaining a solution to a problem with the customer concerning theproduct, to allow the customer to find a solution to the problem withouthaving to initiating the live support session with the support agent.